Chapter 38 – The Bridge
As Malcolm's spirit had promised, thirty years elapsed. And they were trying times, but the Reed-Hayes family all had each other, and that helped immeasurably.
By 2054, all of the Ikaaran adults were dead, killed by the decline. It had been a century before the kickback to the past, and that seemed like it could have been a thousand years, a million, even, as so many lights went out, almost at the same time. The last one was the youngest, Corda. José found her one morning, gone, in the bed they had shared. He wept as he dressed her in a simple green and white gown, the one she had worn for their wedding, and he carried her corpse through the halls, bringing her to the Observation Lounge which had, sadly, become the place for final good-byes.
But that had happened twenty-eight years before. As the crew aged, relationships drifted into areas that were a lot more similar to what Lili had had with Jay and Malcolm. There simply weren't enough older women to go around.
And so Sophie found herself with two fellows, and Colleen had three. It was rarely sexual – they were all at least sixty years old, and some of the crew members were even in their eighties, like Lili was. Jay was already over ninety.
Hence the unconventional relationships were more likely to be a choice of dates for Movie Night, or hand-holding while looking at the stars or listening to Rex and Meredith sing, as they still did, even though she was in her eighties and was forgetting more and more of their repertoire as time passed. But it was enough, and goodnight kisses and embraces easily lasted until morning.
=/\=
It was the early morning, and Jay and Lili were sleeping. Before the alarm – which was still set at the ungodly time of oh four hundred hours – Lili cautiously opened her eyes. She would always listen for Jay's snoring, as it assured her that all was well. But that morning, he was quieter, and she feared the worst. But his chest was still rising and falling. She snuggled closer to him.
Her time as sous-chef continued, even though she should have been long retired. She didn't mind working, but it was tiring. So she would help and would supervise, but the reality was that Joss – her apprentice – did the vast majority of the chopping, serving and cleaning up. But she still got up for the breakfast shift. Will, on the other hand, was rarely working before lunchtime. He was getting to his end, too, and was having some memory issues as well. Even though Lili was going deaf, she was still better off than he was, so she would often be the one to remember to make a vegan version of dinner, or add the salt or whatever. Will, increasingly, was becoming less reliable for that.
But this was still the morning. "Are you asleep?" she asked Jay softly.
"Huh? Um, yeah."
"Silly man."
"I always wondered how you'd react if I said yes to that question. How ya doing this morning, Mrs. Reed-Hayes?"
"Pretty well. I'm gonna make you blueberry pancakes because I know you love them."
"Won't other people notice if you're just cooking for me?"
"Silly man! I'll make them for everybody. But they're really gonna be for you."
He looked at her strangely. "Uh, I'm not so sure I'm going to be able to have any."
"What?"
"I, uh, Lili, I dunno how I know this, but something is off. I don't, uh; I don't think I'll be eating anything."
"Let's go to Sick Bay. You'll be able to get your appetite back."
"No, Lili," he said. "I think I might never eat anything ever again."
They were both quiet. "Don't leave me, Jay."
"It's not like I want to, Sparrow. But I think this has to happen."
"I'll call Phlox." She made as if to get up, but he put his hand on her arm.
He was winded from the exertion. "Don't. Please. He can't do anything anyway."
"At least let me get the kids in here."
"Joss and Kim are on B deck, in case you forgot," he said, "and Maddie and Henry are down the hall. Pamela's in Sick Bay with Nick, probably. And that's just them – that's not even their kids or the great-grandchildren. It, they won't get here in time, Sparrow."
She started to cry. "I, I don't know what to do, Jay."
"Just be here with me. Let me talk to you. It's all I want, to talk to you and, and, to kiss you before, before, you know." She came close to do just that.
"I remember, I was told it would be thirty years," she said suddenly, "and I put that in the back of my mind. I just lived my life. But now, yeah, those thirty years are up and I guess it's time to pay the piper. Oh, Jay."
"Wait, who told you it would be thirty years?" he asked.
"I think it was; I know this sounds nuts, but I think it may have been Malcolm. It, it was a dream. But now I'm thinking it was somehow more than a dream. Just like someone like you told me that Pamela would become a doctor. He, he said he loved me in some, some other life. I dunno."
"Whatever happened, whatever that was, so long as you got comfort from those things, Sparrow, that's all that matters. I, man, thirty years. It's hard to believe it's been that long. It was like an eye blink. It was like nothing, it was so fast. Know that, throughout all of it, I loved you, and I loved our family. Even before we got together, even before I knew you, I loved you, yanno. The Blue Jay always was meant to be with the Sparrow, and love the Sparrow and share the nest."
"I know we were always meant to be together," she concurred, "in some form or another. Do you think there's something out there, some sort of an afterlife? I mean, I've dreamt of Malcolm, but what if it's just my mind somehow comforting me, like you said?"
"I don't know if that matters anymore. But I think there is something. I mean," He said, "how could we love each other before, if we can't love each other after, too? I love you, Sparrow."
"I love you, too." She paused. "Are you in any pain?"
"No."
"Are you sure? You don't have to be a martyr, Jay."
He smiled a little at that. "Don't worry. It truly is painless."
"Oh, that's good. That's a bit comforting."
"Yeah, it's funny. The room's kinda foggy. But I can see you just fine."
She took his hand. "Can you squeeze my hand?"
"I can't, not any more. I'm sorry. It's all I can do to talk and keep breathing, or even to smile a tiny bit."
"That's okay." She came closer and kissed him again. "I love you so much. You know I'm going with you, don't you?"
"Sparrow, you don't have to."
"I know. But I won't be able to go on. I remember this now. Malcolm had said I wouldn't be widowed for very long."
"How?"
"I'll think of something. And we can be together," she said.
"Promise me you won't let them bury me. I, I wanna be shot out, like in one of those repurposed torpedo tubes."
"All right. The Blue Jay will fly."
"Exactly. Hey, things are clearer now. I can see – and I know it's not real, but I see it anyway."
"What are you seeing, Jay?"
"A stone bridge. I, I know once I cross it, I'm gone. So listen, all right?"
"Of course."
"Tell Pamela not to worry. She couldn't have saved me. She's a good doctor. She and Nick will be good parents, too. Tell her I love her as much as I love our others."
"You got it."
"Tell Maddie that I know she'll do her old men proud. We know she'll never send anyone out on a mission without thorough prep. We know she'll defend the ship better than anyone. She and Henry are meant to stay together."
"I swear I will tell her that."
"Please tell Joss, tell him that he has the best of me in him. He and Kim are terrific parents and grandparents."
"I'll make sure he knows that."
"I can see people. It's, it's everyone who's gone."
"Your parents?"
"No, but I think that's just 'cause time is still all messed up. Chang and Curtis and Hodgkins are here, and they're saluting me, it's funny. I can see Hamboyan standing at attention. Harris is there, too. And I can see Bithara, and Preece Ti and Jeris, and all of them. Tell their spouses, tell Archer. Those people are all okay and they look happy."
"I will. Can you see Malcolm?"
"Holy cow," he said.
"What are you seeing, Jay?"
"It's, it's weird. There are three – no, four – versions of Malcolm. No, wait a second, there are three, and the fourth is, he's different somehow. And there's a guy who, who looks just like me. I don't get it."
"How strange."
"Even stranger," he said, "the, the three versions of Malcolm, they just, they kinda touched and, and merged. I think that was kinda, I can't explain it, but I think that was to show me that time will be restored."
"But there were three. Huh, maybe it loops around a second time, or something?"
"I'm sure I don't know. There's no sound, but the, uh, the newly reintegrated Malcolm, he's, he's showing me – he and the guy who looks like me, the two of them, they're holding one of those two-man saws."
"A saw?"
"Yeah, and I can see a little beyond the, the stone bridge. There are green fields. And there are all these unfinished houses. Sparrow, we're gonna build. It's, it's gonna be for, for you, and, and everyone."
"Jay, oh, that's wonderful."
"That other Malcolm, he's somehow different. He's got a tape measure. And the Ikaarans, they've all got their own things with them – old-fashioned levels and, and blueprints and paint cans and brushes and wrenches and all of that stuff. Trowels and shovels, too."
"I bet they've got something for you."
"The, the guy who looks like me, he's, he's, I can't hear them yet, but he's, he's mouthing the words October and 2157."
"He's the guy!" she cried out. "He said he meets me in October of 2157. Holy cow, Jay! He's the one who I heard, every time I was under anesthesia. He said they were my darkest hours, and he was there. He was there for me! And now he's there for you!"
He turned slightly, trying his best to face her. She came close and they kissed again, lingering. He spoke. "I love you forever. Before, after and in between. There are no limits, and the time doesn't matter one whit. I will fly, and I will be the breeze, and you will be the white-hot flame. Lili, there is nothing that will ever change my love for you."
She was sobbing. "I love you, Jay Douglas Reed-Hayes."
"Sparrow, Charlotte Lilienne, Lili, Mrs. Reed-Hayes, white-hot flame, I am being given a hammer. And I will build, and it will all be for you, like it always has been. Like everything has been for you. The body may die, but my love for you, it will endure always, even as time corrects itself. That will never die." He smiled the broadest smile she had ever seen from him, gasped just once, and was gone.
=/\=
Lili got up slowly, after perhaps a half an hour of the alarm going off. She dressed, lingering, looking at Jay's body, not sure if she wanted to leave him. There was a door chime.
It was Joss. "I, uh, you're late for the breakfast rush. I wanted to see if everything was all right."
"Joss, your father has passed," she said, "it was maybe an hour ago, Sweetheart."
He held her. "I'll call, God, I dunno who I'll call," he admitted to her.
"He wasn't in any pain. Tell me, Joss, I want to make breakfast today, and lunch and dinner and breakfast tomorrow, like always."
"You don't have to, Mom. C'mon, you don't have to."
"But I do," she said, "I do." What she did not tell him was that she planned for those to be the last meals she would ever make.
He flipped open his communicator. "Joss to, uh, to Maddie. Yeah, sorry to wake you. Come to Mom and Dad's quarters. Get Pam, too. Dad is; he's gone."
"I'm coming," she had a catch in her throat.
They arrived quickly. "What do you want to do, Mom?" Pamela asked. "If I had come sooner, I, God, I wish I had been here sooner."
"No, honey. Your father said to me, he told me to tell you that you couldn't have done anything. Do not worry about that. You are a fine doctor. He wants you to know that he loves you, all of you, the same. He said you and Nick will make great parents."
Pamela patted her swollen belly. "I'll name my baby after him."
"Joss, he told me to tell you that you and Kim are excellent parents and grandparents, and you inherited the best parts of him. I tell you, love, I look at your face and I see his."
"Thanks, Mom."
"And Maddie, he said that he knows you'll defend the ship and will never send anyone on a mission without proper precautions. And you and Henry are meant to stay together."
"Oh, Mom."
The four of them embraced. Madeline said, "I will get Security crewmen to come here and, and, you know. We can have the funeral today."
"Tomorrow," Lili said, "after breakfast. That is what I wish. Please."
"Tomorrow, then," Madeline said.
"I guess I need to get breakfast started," Joss said.
"I was planning on blueberry pancakes," Lili said.
"Dad's favorite. Let's make all his favorites today," he smiled slightly.
"And a smoked pineapple tart for dessert tonight," Lili added.
"Perfect," he said, and departed.
"I'd better get ready for the Bridge today," Madeline said. "Mom, do you need anything?"
"I'm all right," Lili said, "I just have one question. Can he be sent out in a repurposed torpedo tube? He said he wanted that."
"Of course. We're close to Amity. It could even be put into synchronous orbit over the planet, if you like."
"Oh, could you do that? If you can, then over Aquilasicca, where blueberries grow on Amity," Lili said.
"That's perfect, too," Madeline said. "I'll go make the arrangements." She, too, left.
"Pamela," Lili said, "how much air do you think those tubes hold?"
"Not much. Why do you ask?"
"I, uh, don't tell a soul, not even Nick or Joss or Maddie, all right? You must swear this to me, on your, your father's body."
"Swear to what, Mom?"
"I, I want to go with him."
"Suicide?"
"Yes," Lili said, "I can't hold it together, not really. All that's working for me right now is feeling that I only have to do this for about twenty-four hours. I want to go through today, cook three meals, make one last log entry, sleep in our bed one last time and then make one last breakfast in the morning. And at the funeral, I want to climb into that tube and go with him. So I ask you, when the air runs out, will that hurt? Will I even know it's happening?"
"You, you might know a bit. Here, come with me to Sick Bay," Pamela said, a plan forming in her head. "I, I don't want to see you go, Mom, but I do understand why you would want to. I just wish you would be here for, for this one's arrival." She tapped her own belly again.
"I wish we could have waited, but this was your Dad's time." Lili followed Pamela to Sick Bay.
=/\=
In Sick Bay, they had heard the news. Andy was there, and so was Nick Ryan, Pamela's husband – he, too, was a physician. They each hugged her and expressed their condolences. Nick looked at her and said, "We will name our son after Jay."
"Pamela said that, too," Lili said, "I am very pleased."
She followed Pamela to where there was a small dispensary. Pamela opened the cabinet and took out a small vial with tiny pills in it. "This is for you." She took out one pill and gave it to Lili.
"What is it?"
Pamela looked around and then kept her voice down. "The compound is called tricoulamine. It's very fast and painless. We give it to the MACOs before missions. Fortunately, they rarely use them."
"Got it. So I just bite down and swallow?"
"You may not even need to swallow anything, it is that fast."
Phlox came in, hunched over and moving slowly. "I suppose it was inevitable, that our senior staff would begin to be claimed by old age." He gave Lili a hug. "I am so sorry. The Major was very dear to you."
"Yes, he was," she said. "I am going to go and make breakfast. I just, I want to do something that almost feels, just a little bit, like normal. The, the funeral will be tomorrow after breakfast."
"Everyone will be there, I am sure," said the Denobulan.
=/\=
Lili got through the day as best as she could. It was surreal. But it was what she wanted to do. She and Joss made everything that Jay or Malcolm had liked. There were blueberry pancakes with bacon and grits and a fruit salad with pineapple chunks featured prominently. That was breakfast.
Lunch was a Mexican-style spread, with shredded replicated beef or chicken empanadas, shredded jack cheese on the side, heaping salads with orange vinaigrette dressing and sliced avocadoes.
Supper was chicken soup with matzoh balls to start, and then turkeys, just like at Thanksgiving, although it was really procul meat but no one seemed to really mind or notice the difference. There was chestnut stuffing, roasted potatoes with gravy, green beans and vidalia onions, mixed with spinach and a little cheddar cheese if you wanted it. There were more heaping salads, this time with blueberry vinaigrette dressing and tossed in toasted walnuts and almonds and a topping of tabbouleh if you liked. And, as promised, the smoked pineapple tart.
Captain Archer watched as Lili served course after course. "What are you doing?" he finally asked. "I would have thought, you know."
"People still need to eat, right? And I want to do this for them."
It was his private mess. Henry and Madeline had joined them, but they left just after dessert and Jonathan was watching Lili clean up. She had even sent away Craig and Brian. "This isn't just a lot of cooking," he said. "This is your last hurrah."
"Don't, um, don't tell anyone, please, sir."
"All right," he said, "how will you do it?"
"I want to go out in the capsule with him. Can we do that? Pamela gave me something to take if I get scared – it'll be quick and painless. But I just want to be with him. I can't see sending Jay out to the cold ether around Amity all by himself."
He smiled a little to himself. His smiles had tightened up again after Ebrona's death. "I would have thought you'd want to be around for your daughter Pamela to give birth."
"I thought about that – and that's the only thing keeping me here. But Jay told me, he said he saw everyone, all of the people who had passed. And they are okay, and they're happy."
"He saw Ebrona?"
"He told me to tell you personally."
"My God."
"Sir? I have also had dreams. I dreamt of one of the people who met him, who I assume guided him once he'd crossed over. That guy, he knew things. He told me Pamela would become a doctor. He told me it would be thirty years that Jay and I were alone together. So I figure, you know, that I'll be able to see things, too. So I'll see Pamela's baby. I won't be able to hold him, but I'll be able to see him."
"You make it sound as if we should all just up and die, and be in, well, in the real paradise."
"I don't think we should," she said, "because life has meaning. I think it is still very much worth living. But that's for everyone else. I love Jay. And I love Malcolm. They are in a faraway land now. All I want to do is, is immigrate there. That's all."
"What do your children say?"
"Only Pamela knows."
"They're going to be devastated, Lili."
"I don't know. But we've all had to go on. You, me, Patti, everyone. We've had to suppress feelings and put off hurts and make ourselves do all sorts of things when we should have been in mourning, or traumatized or sick or whatever. We have done all of this. Well, I want to have my time of feeling truly hurt and pained. But is it so selfish to want that to be a short amount of time?"
He thought for a moment. "I suppose not. Do you, uh," he changed the subject, "do you recall our date?"
"Sure I do. You're a good kisser, you know that?"
Small smile again. "You are, too. I'll miss you." They hugged.
"I will miss you, too. I'll tell Ebrona you ask for her."
"Every second of every day," he said, as she finished cleaning up and wheeled a cart full of dirty dishes out of the Captain's Mess for one last time.
=/\=
In her quarters, Lili straightened up. Security – or someone, at any rate – had removed the body, so she didn't have to face that. They had even made the bed but, she was relieved, had not changed the sheets. She leaned over and sniffed them, still smelling Jay's scent. It made her smile a bit, a bittersweet feeling. There was a door chime.
"Come in."
It was Joss and Madeline. "Mom," he said, "we figured it out."
"Figured out what?"
"What you're going to do tomorrow at Dad's funeral."
"Oh?"
"Yeah," Maddie said, "we realized, you've been making everything and anything. It's as if you're never going to cook again. And then we realized – you won't."
"Don't try to stop me."
"We, uh, we won't," Joss said. "Actually, I can't say this is wholly unexpected. We know what Dad meant to you, and what Mackum did, too. I just wish you'd stick around to see Pam's baby."
"I wish that a bit," Lili admitted, "but my heart is telling me to do this. And I also feel – in my bones – that I'll see Pam's baby. And I'll see all of you. I was never truly alone during my darkest moments. And none of you will be, either."
"You're my mother and I don't want you to die," Madeline said, crying. "First Dad, and now you? It's hard to take."
"Sweetie," Lili said, hugging her elder daughter, "If Dad and I were, let's say, in a shuttle together; then we would both be gone, right? So maybe think of it like that if that helps at all. I dunno. It's not like I've ever done this before."
That made the younger woman smile a little.
"You taught me everything I know," Joss said, "who am I gonna go to when the frosting doesn't turn out right?"
"Lemme tell ya, I screwed up the frosting more times than I care to remember," Lili admitted. Then she thought of something. "Is Pamela very upset? I mean more than she would be."
"Well, I mean, Ma, c'mon," Joss said. He was also getting teary. "I love you. I want my grandkids to know you, to really know you. And now they won't."
"I, I, know. Believe me, this isn't exactly a perfectly simple, cut and dried thing. Maybe it was for five seconds, but it's not like I'm doing this easily."
The three of them hugged. The door chimed again, and it was Pamela. Wordlessly, she came in and joined the embrace. "Pamela," Lili said, "I'm not leaving because I want to miss your baby. I love you and I love your baby and I wish he was here right now so that I could hold him."
"Mom, I want you to know," Pamela said, "I'm, I'm okay with it. Really. I mean, there are things I would wish for. But Dad's not coming back. And I know how I feel about Nick. I can understand why you wanna do what you, well, wanna do. That's why I gave you the tablet in the first place. Otherwise I'd have just told Andrew or Phlox. But I didn't. I want you to have this, this choice."
"Thank you."
"And Mom," Joss said, "I don't love this, but I can't say that I don't understand it. So, um, I wanna give you this." He took a foil-covered square out of a zippered pocket.
"What's this?" Lili asked.
"It's bittersweet dark chocolate. I figure, you know, you put the tablet in there. Let the," he started to really sob; "let the last thing you taste be one of the things you love the most."
"And here," Madeline said, "take this." It was a turquoise hair ribbon that she untied from her own hair. "Dad always loved this color on you. Wear it and make him smile when he," she began to really cry, too, "When he sees you tomorrow."
They all embraced again. Finally, Lili said, "Let me sleep, my loves. I will help with breakfast again, as I always do, Joss. I want to do that. Hash browns and all sorts of omelets and Scottish steel-cut oats for the vegans, all right? And a nice spicy sausage, too – your father loved it almost as much as bacon. And let's make another fruit salad. I've gotta have pineapple."
"Of course, Ma," he said.
The three of them reluctantly departed.
=/\=
Lili lay down to sleep as she always did. And, as she had ever since she could remember – and even before she had been born – she had a dream.
It was pitch black. She stood in the darkness, and then heard a sound of footfalls. She turned to that direction, but it was still inky black and she could not see anything or anyone. "Who's there?"
"I don't know if you would wish to spend time with me." The voice was male, with a British accent.
"Malcolm!"
"Actually, no," he said, coming closer. "There is, well, there is an infinite number of universes. But two of them are intimately connected. Like, like lovers, I suppose. And I come from one. You come from the other."
"Wait – Jay said – he said there were four versions of Malcolm. Three of them joined together but a fourth was, he was separate. And you must be him."
"I must be."
"How is that possible? Can you let me in on that?"
"There are these two universes, two sides of a coin or two facets of a mirror. But the mirror is distorted and the coin's face is not the same on its obverse," he explained. "My place, it is far harsher than your own."
"I see, I think. Tell, me, what's the deal with the guy who was there in my darkest hours? Who is he?"
"Same thing," said the voice. "He is another counterpart from our harsh land."
"But he was kind to me."
"It takes a supreme effort of will. He had it. I did not, not in life, that is. It was too late then, anyway. He is the one who meets you in October of 2157 and not I."
"How does he do that?"
"This dream – it's got psionic properties. You have psionic abilities, but they truly only come through your dream states. But your picture is unclear. Hence this is audio only. But when the timeline rights itself, the Enterprise travels to a system where the space between the two universes is at its thinnest, and the entire area is psionically charged. Put all of that together and you are able to dream of Douglas."
"Douglas? That's Jay's middle name."
"And Jay is Douglas's middle name," he said, "He is a counterpart to Jay. And I am a counterpart to Malcolm, as I suppose you have already inferred."
"But Malcolm doesn't have a middle name," she pointed out.
"True, but usually the names match perfectly, and ours did. But I got here, and I wanted a fresh start. You know, it's like an immigrant. And so I have altered my given name and I think it suits me better."
"What is it?"
"Ian."
"Malcolm likes that name, too."
"We have what in common, he and I. But he knows you, in all three iterations, whereas I never knew you or your counterpart. My life would, I feel, have been far different if I had."
"Wait – I have a counterpart?"
"Absolutely. But that house fire which claimed your parents when you were nine years old – it claimed her as well. You were the fortunate one."
"I, I suppose I was. Tell me, Ian, is Jay all right? Is Malcolm?"
"Most definitely. And anxious for your first day to go well, truth be told," Ian confided to her.
She laughed a little at that. "I'm sure it'll be wonderful. Sheesh, it's heaven, right?"
"I suppose," he allowed, "but it's not quite like Dante dreamt up. This, this afterworld, it's both paradise and punishment, togetherness and work and despair and reward and striving and fulfillment."
"He said he saw unfinished houses."
"There are always going to be unfinished houses, until life itself ceases. But they're comfortable."
"Why should we stay alive, if it's good there?"
"Well, like I said," Ian reiterated, "it's not all sunshiny. It's not harps and wings and clouds. You atone for your sins, and you work off your monstrosities, whether big or small. Petty cruelties, pain you've inflicted on others – everything from an ant you flattened to a murder."
"So I'll be atoning for the death of She Who Almost Didn't Breed in Time."
"That's right, even though that Xindi Insectoid would have killed you had you not gotten her first. But you will also be with, well, with all of us."
"But you didn't know me."
"Doesn't matter. See, counterpart to counterpart, I cannot help but be taken by you."
"That's a lot to process," she said.
"You shall begin your process of understanding tomorrow, when you join us."
"I see. Ian? Maybe you and I should spend this time and get acquainted."
"There's not much to tell," he said, "I lost my life in January of 2155. I fought a Gorn for Archer and was wounded. Phlox gave me a fifty-fifty chance of survival. But he was killed as he was a saboteur. And then, well, for the one who got me, it was either her or me, and she would have been killed otherwise."
"Oh, Ian."
"Do not mourn for me. I am a killer, many times over. Like I said, life would have been rather different with you. I had no gentling influences. There's more, of course. But I am going through a process that the others – not even Douglas – do not need to do. Yes, I am that scarred and damaged by the wicked things I did. I barely deserve to be here, and to have you being so kind to me."
"Hmm. Tell you what. We can hear, right? Can we hear music tonight?"
"I suppose."
She thought for a moment and music started to play. "There. That's the song from Jenny and Aidan's wedding."
"I, I don't deserve your kindness."
"Yes, you do, Ian." She reached out and took his hand and, for the remainder of her last night alive, they danced.
=/\=
Charlotte Lilienne O'Day Reed-Hayes's Personal log, December third, 2082
Jay is gone. And tomorrow I will join Malcolm and him.