SORRY, SORRY, SORRY, SORRY!!!!!!! I fell off the face of the Earth for...
oops... 4 months.... But I'm back, and I updated... I hope this isn't too little
too late....
It's over! Wow. *sits back and observes* ......... Okay! Enough of that. On
with the story!
A/N: I have NO idea how to play poker, so it's really a wild guess. If I'm wrong with anything, oh well, I don't know how to play. That's why I
was so vague. Plus it wasn't important anyway.
Please review at the end! ^ _ - v
Chapter 19
Goodbye
It was raining again. Not nearly with as much force as it had been only moments ago; the droplets that had come down in sheets had tapered off once again into a gentle mist that blanketed the hazy town, but it was clear that the rain would soon come out of the lull and return once again to the pounding drops. I stood on the porch and waved goodbye to everyone, my smile fading into the gray that surrounded us, the thought ever present in the back of my mind that it would be a long while before I would see them all together again. We had said so many goodbyes, but they didn't feel like enough.
They were all so much to me like a dream, vanishing into the mist that hung in the air and fell like velvet curtains on the closing of a play. I wished I could capture them in that moment, forever etch the scene into my thoughts: Travis running ahead of them all, his shoes sending additional splashes into the air from peaceful little puddles, hoping to open the car doors for them all before they even had the chance for their fingers to touch the handles, and maybe then he might be the one to take the wheel. I laughed inwardly. It was so like him to still wish to be at the helm after all that time. Maybe being captain wasn't enough for him when he could have still had the controls at his fingertips. Then there was Malcolm, jogging leisurely for his seat out of the rain, only squinting against the little beads that fell. They rolled off his jacket and matted his hair a little, at times splashing into his eyes, but he moved at a pace like he never even noticed it was anything but sunny, and if it was, he didn't care. And then Jon.... The most hesitant to leave. He was at last torn away, if not by the other two men, by the knowledge that he must leave, that he had no other choice. He made no joke to Travis that he was still the highest ranking of them all and should be driving, maybe because of dormant concerns that could still not be quieted, or maybe not, but he took his seat in the back, and his face disappeared behind the window, coats of rain streaming down it. But quietest of all, Hoshi, standing beside my father on the porch, looking down at the warped planks of wood that supported her feet. My father looked down at her soft but saddened features, and his eyes shimmered with sorrow.
With one last look at all of them together, I managed to pry myself away, then turned and went back into the house. I didn't want to leave them behind. They would never be the same as they were in that one moment in time, and I could never get that moment back once I left it behind me.
"Are ya sure ya gotta go?" I could hear Dad ask Hoshi quietly.
I halted my already hesitant steps and turned back around, out of their sight, and stood leaning against the wall near the door, watching them in conversation.
Hoshi's smile, though reserved, still shined with happiness. "I have to get back to my kids. Both my own and my class, since I'm going back to teach."
He nodded in understanding and I looked away at the door frame. She must have had a lot to take care of, more than she would let on to. She was far too young to be a widow, I thought to myself. I never knew the man whose life was taken by the accident so many years ago, but Hoshi did. I wondered if she still thought about him, like my father did sometimes about Ah'Len. I looked back at her hand and saw that her ring finger held no wedding band any longer. I questioned for a moment if that was so because they weren't ever all that close, or if it just hurt too much to see any remnant of the man she loved. My thoughts were cut short by Hoshi's words.
"Besides, you've got enough to take care of here," she told him lightly, receiving a smile.
A long silence followed, and it looked as though Hoshi's eyes were misty from more than just the rain. But she blinked her tears back, trying to hide them away from him.
He sighed. "Well... if ya gotta go... I hope ya keep in touch then."
"I will. ...I know we all will."
He nodded once more, trying a smile again, but it wavered, and I wasn't sure why. When I looked at Hoshi, she seemed aware that it was what she said that had brought about more grief. His reaction still confused me, though, despite her own understanding.
Her hand lightly touched his arm. "I know I'll see you soon," she added quietly, a meek but playful little smile gracing her lips. "I just don't think transmissions alone would be the same after this stay here. ...After everything I tried to put behind me from so long ago."
A large grin found its way back onto his face.
What did that mean? I wondered. What had happened?
At once then, after so much happiness she evoked in my father, I watched a tear fall, her eyes now glistening with them. Dad put his arms around her, hoping to comfort her sorrow, her already quiet crying becoming stifled by the downpour that started up once more.
"I feel like I'm saying goodbye all over again like I had to on Enterprise..." she told him, her voice strangled to a quiet whisper.
"I know..." he murmured in agreement, nodding a little.
When she at last stopped her tears, she took her head from his shoulder and looked into his eyes. "...I'm not saying goodbye this time, Trip." She hesitated a moment, then leaned in and let her lips softly brush his, lingering a moment before at last forcing herself to pull away.
Hoshi sniffed back tears that might have slipped down her cheeks. "Even if it can't be anything more than that," she told him almost inaudibly.
He pushed a loose strand of hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. "...We'll see."
They both stood staring into each other's eyes, unaware of the rest of the world passing by before them. Unaware that the car was still waiting for its final passenger, that soon it would drive off and leave behind me and my father and David. Unaware that maybe that would be the final time we would all be together at once... before all our lives might change... no... *would* change. Unaware that the future was uncertain, and that, for all we knew, it could end here. But there in the rain, time stood still and looked sorrowfully at what things had become, and in its guilt for what it had done, allowed a moment to stretch into so much longer... if for no one else, for Dad and Hoshi.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The sounds of static popped over the old screen, and in fizzled Enterprise's mess hall, where Dad, Hoshi, and Travis sat, laughing as they played some kind of card game.
Dad put down a few cards on the table, only half paying attention to what he was doing, while Travis tried his best not to look eager to take them up. Hoshi was too busy trying not to look toward the camera.
"Trying out a new gift?" Travis asked whoever was behind the device. His voice sounded slightly metallic from the age of the recording.
"Well, I wouldn't call it new, but since I haven't had the chance to use it until now, it might as well be," came a female voice from off camera.
The camera moved from Travis to Hoshi then to Dad, and back to stay on Hoshi.
Hoshi put down a few cards, then nervously looked back and forth from the table to the camera. "Laura, how interesting can a poker game be?" Hoshi asked, blushing at still being the focus of the recording.
"Come on, Hoshi, have fun with it!" Laura told her. "I just want to catch everyone off duty for once. It's just for fun!"
Hoshi reddened even more, then ducked down behind her cards.
"Aw, c'mon..." Laura urged her.
The camera zoomed in on the still flushed Hoshi, who was suddenly replaced by my dad, a large grin stretched across his face, and waving.
"Hey!"
The camera zoomed out again, and Dad sat back in his seat, laughing.
Hoshi smiled at him in gratitude, and he smiled back briefly, then just resumed picking up a card or two from the pile.
"Fine, Commander, be that way," Laura sighed, then laughed.
His smile just widened. "Oh, I plan on it."
The camera zoomed over to Travis, looking now pretty distraught at his hand.
Laura then paned over the table, topped with a mess of random objects all unique to the individual that brought them- an assurance that they would each return with what they had brought to play another game sometime later. It was obvious that Hoshi had brought items that she knew neither of the two men would want to walk away with: an assortment of pink and/or sparkly objects, many of them cosmetics. Dad, on the other hand, had just brought a bunch of nuts and bolts and such that engineering could spare, and Travis had taken a handful of game board pieces. Presently, though, Travis had a pretty small group beside him, and though Hoshi had a fair pile, Dad's was a mess of most of his original pieces, much of Travis's, and a number of Hoshi's.
"Commander, do you have to win them so unmercifully?" joked Laura, then in mock-reprimand, added, "Shame...."
A large grin formed on his face and he hardly tried to stifle back a chuckle. "They're just gonna hafta learn." He got up, taking his empty mug- and cards- with him.
The camera took a dizzying spin back to Travis.
"I'm never playing poker with Commander Tucker again," he informed her in good nature, laughing a little. "Or any other game that involves losing."
Laura turned to Hoshi, looking in deep concentration at her cards, but, in addition to the shy officer, she found Dad taking a short pause behind her, peeking over her shoulder and *also* concentrating on her hand.
"Aha! Cheater!" Laura called out, causing Dad to jump and nearly drop the mug. "No *wonder* you keep winning!"
Hoshi turned around and saw him trying to look innocent, and at first took up a very fluffy looking object with the intention of throwing it at him, but then thought better of pelting a superior officer on the head with anything, be it plush or not.
"Is something the matter, Ensign?" asked a voice from off camera, monotonous and inquisitive.
"Sub-commander!" Hoshi announced in surprise, then noticed her arm was still raised in preparation to launch the fluffy thing at her commander, and immediately put it down, her face red with embarrassment. "No, no, nothing's wrong."
"Just a little disagreement, ma'am," Laura informed her, the camera drifting over to incorporate T'Pol into the shot.
Her eyes glanced over at Dad, standing with an air of looseness and playfulness about him, and she watched as he directed his smile at her. "...I wouldn't doubt it."
Dad's smile widened. It was obvious that he often ruffled T'Pol to annoyance, or at least as far as her Vulcan stoicism would bend toward it.
She then began to walk to the door, but turned back and set her eyes on my dad once more. "Mr. Tucker, you've finished your dinner, am I correct?"
He shrugged. "Yeah. Why?"
"My console is malfunctioning, and I would appreciate your assistance."
He shrugged. "Just lead the way."
She nodded once, and no one could tell by the indifferent expression on her face whether that nod was a show of appreciation or just a confirmation that he had done something she expected of him without even really listening to his response. Dad just accepted it either way, knowing that was the best he would ever get out of a Vulcan. He had a better shot of getting her to punch him in the face than to smile at him, and he knew that.
"Oh-" Travis began from behind, and all eyes and the camera unconsciously turned in his direction. "Now that you mention it... I just remembered that the navigation system's been a little stubborn the past couple days. Every time I check it seems fine, but something's still not aligned just right, and I know you've got an eye for these things."
Dad nodded knowingly for a moment, realizing that everyone was going to take this opportunity to dump all of their malfunctions on him. "No problem," he said anyway.
Travis smiled his thanks and walked out, following T'Pol, who had gone while Travis was finishing up making his request.
"Uh... Commander?"
Dad turned around and faced Hoshi, his smile faded into a look of courteous happiness as he noted the amusing irony of how the others had gotten the best of the cheater, but was still disappointed to add more work to his already busy schedule.
"I was hoping you could fix the level of background noise the UT's picking up lately." She grimaced, knowing he didn't really need that extra work.
He let his smile widen a little. "No problem, Hoshi," he said sincerely.
"Thank you," she told him, her grimace becoming a smile at his kindness, then leaving with one last look.
The mess hall doors closed with a hiss and left Dad standing there. He shook his head, then walked to the table where they had played their card game and dug through the remaining items the other two forgot to take, reclaiming the pieces he knew engineering would need soon. He looked up at Laura, realizing her camera was still on him.
"If you ask me t' fix that camera, I swear I'll throw Hoshi's plush thing at'cha," he joked, even though he looked serious enough for it not to be completely out of the question.
Laura laughed. "No... I promise I won't."
"Good. We've already got *enough* t' do down there," he mumbled to himself. "It's like the whole ship's fallin' apart...."
Laura still didn't turn off the camera. Dad looked over and noticed that she still wasn't moving.
"Jeez, you're worse than *me*. What's so interesting about me pickin' up after a game of poker?"
"Same thing that's interesting about that random game."
Dad, only half listening to what she said, reached across the table to dig through Hoshi's pile. Laura tried to hold back a giggle as a devilish thought crossed her mind. Her stifled laughter could be heard while the lens zoomed in on his behind.
"He-ey!" Dad laughed, noticing what she was doing, and trying to get out of the shot, or at least put his hand in the way of it.
Laura zoomed back out, laughing, "Just kidding, Commander!"
Both of them knew that it was a good thing he wasn't as strict as he could have been, or, for that matter, that there wasn't anyone else in the mess hall. That was when they both became aware of the fact that they were by themselves and needed to get off to wherever they were needed.
Dad stood up and dumped the nuts and bolts into a pocket, then sighed, turning to face Laura. "Well.... It was fun while it lasted."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
As I picked up the last of Dad's old pictures, I took a last long look at how the first crew of the NX-01 looked in the dim light of the attic, at their happy, hopeful, smiling faces, save for T'Pol, who, I'm told, never smiled at all, and pushed some of the dust from the frame with my thumb.
"Back when I wasn't such an old man."
I turned to the voice behind me and looked up, Dad grinning down at me, and smiled back.
"Yer not old...."
"Then what's all this gray, then?" he asked, being jokingly adamant.
"It's the attic, Dad," I stated, losing the smile to try to appear serious. "All this dust up here just collects on yer head."
"Oh?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at me as though he were challenging me.
The smile found its way back over my lips as I recalled something. "I think the attic dust might be a good look for ya." I watched his eyes narrow in confusion before turning back to put more into the box. "After all, ya *are* startin' t' turn into a ladies' man.... Don't think I didn't see that kiss with Hoshi...."
I looked back up at him, just shaking his head and chuckling softly to himself.
"So what was it then? Are ya gonna tell me what's goin' on between you two or what?"
"Would'ja let me have a little privacy?" he laughed.
"Nope." I sat on my feet. "C'mon, now, out with it."
He sighed, biting at the edge of his mouth. "I dunno.... Maybe it might be somethin', maybe not. Last time she kissed me, we didn't see each other for... I don' even *remember* how many years...."
"*Last* time?!" I exclaimed in surprise. "Yer tellin' me there was *another* time?"
He just hid back a smile and gave me a look of happily adamant furtiveness as he lifted up one of the two last boxes of the pictures and transmissions.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey- don't avoid the question," I told him, unable to stop myself from giggling all the while.
He just turned his blue eyes on me and smiled, saying nothing.
"I'm not gonna get you t' tell me, am I?"
"Nope."
As I sat trying to figure out when that kiss could have been, he just shook his head and told me, still laughing a little bit, "Maybe some other time, K'Ela. That's whole different story altogether."
"Fine.... I'll just have to settle for 'later,' I guess," I said, standing and smacking the dust from my pants.
"You never could just leave the past alone, could'ja?" he said, giving me a little smile.
"Nope," I told him, echoing his own previous response.
He chuckled at my stubbornness. "Just bring that last box down into the den. That's the one that's all just pictures, right?"
"Yep."
He started to walk down the stairs and I could hear his voice drift back up to me: "Jeez, now where am I gonna find this many picture frames...?"
My eyes drifted back to the picture.
I guess this really *wasn't* the perfect life he envisioned for himself on the day this picture was taken. It was probably the furthest from it.
I closed the box and stood up with it under my arm. I stood in the middle of the room and looked around me at the dust-layered room, every few meters now clean square pieces of floor where there once sat the neatly placed boxes from Dad's days in Starfleet. I could hear my shoes scraping against the wood floor as I turned around, taking in as much of the room as I could before I went downstairs. I knew I wouldn't be coming up here again for a long while, now that it wasn't needed anymore. There were so many more things to look toward now, so many wonderful things and so many new memories to make of them.
As my eyes scanned the ground for the final time, they caught a glance of my bear in my still open box, its brown fur clumped together with age and wear and powdered with a light layer of dust, but still soft. I smiled, then picked it up and placed it on top of my dad's box of pictures. Maybe when my son is born, he can have it.
I thought a moment.
Hesitantly, I placed the bear back in its box. No.... It needs to be... different. I understood then. I understood and I knew my father understood, and David might have been beginning to understand, even if it was a struggle.
I sighed, and stared into the dimness, thinking over all that had to be given up and all that had come of it. For some reason, I did not wonder then if anything should have happened any differently. For the first time, I didn't need to know.
I closed my eyes and smiled.
...No, not perfect. But happy.
I pulled on the metal chain and with a click, the attic went dark.
~Fin~
***************
I hope you all enjoyed "Picture Imperfect."
It's over! Wow. *sits back and observes* ......... Okay! Enough of that. On
with the story!
A/N: I have NO idea how to play poker, so it's really a wild guess. If I'm wrong with anything, oh well, I don't know how to play. That's why I
was so vague. Plus it wasn't important anyway.
Please review at the end! ^ _ - v
Chapter 19
Goodbye
It was raining again. Not nearly with as much force as it had been only moments ago; the droplets that had come down in sheets had tapered off once again into a gentle mist that blanketed the hazy town, but it was clear that the rain would soon come out of the lull and return once again to the pounding drops. I stood on the porch and waved goodbye to everyone, my smile fading into the gray that surrounded us, the thought ever present in the back of my mind that it would be a long while before I would see them all together again. We had said so many goodbyes, but they didn't feel like enough.
They were all so much to me like a dream, vanishing into the mist that hung in the air and fell like velvet curtains on the closing of a play. I wished I could capture them in that moment, forever etch the scene into my thoughts: Travis running ahead of them all, his shoes sending additional splashes into the air from peaceful little puddles, hoping to open the car doors for them all before they even had the chance for their fingers to touch the handles, and maybe then he might be the one to take the wheel. I laughed inwardly. It was so like him to still wish to be at the helm after all that time. Maybe being captain wasn't enough for him when he could have still had the controls at his fingertips. Then there was Malcolm, jogging leisurely for his seat out of the rain, only squinting against the little beads that fell. They rolled off his jacket and matted his hair a little, at times splashing into his eyes, but he moved at a pace like he never even noticed it was anything but sunny, and if it was, he didn't care. And then Jon.... The most hesitant to leave. He was at last torn away, if not by the other two men, by the knowledge that he must leave, that he had no other choice. He made no joke to Travis that he was still the highest ranking of them all and should be driving, maybe because of dormant concerns that could still not be quieted, or maybe not, but he took his seat in the back, and his face disappeared behind the window, coats of rain streaming down it. But quietest of all, Hoshi, standing beside my father on the porch, looking down at the warped planks of wood that supported her feet. My father looked down at her soft but saddened features, and his eyes shimmered with sorrow.
With one last look at all of them together, I managed to pry myself away, then turned and went back into the house. I didn't want to leave them behind. They would never be the same as they were in that one moment in time, and I could never get that moment back once I left it behind me.
"Are ya sure ya gotta go?" I could hear Dad ask Hoshi quietly.
I halted my already hesitant steps and turned back around, out of their sight, and stood leaning against the wall near the door, watching them in conversation.
Hoshi's smile, though reserved, still shined with happiness. "I have to get back to my kids. Both my own and my class, since I'm going back to teach."
He nodded in understanding and I looked away at the door frame. She must have had a lot to take care of, more than she would let on to. She was far too young to be a widow, I thought to myself. I never knew the man whose life was taken by the accident so many years ago, but Hoshi did. I wondered if she still thought about him, like my father did sometimes about Ah'Len. I looked back at her hand and saw that her ring finger held no wedding band any longer. I questioned for a moment if that was so because they weren't ever all that close, or if it just hurt too much to see any remnant of the man she loved. My thoughts were cut short by Hoshi's words.
"Besides, you've got enough to take care of here," she told him lightly, receiving a smile.
A long silence followed, and it looked as though Hoshi's eyes were misty from more than just the rain. But she blinked her tears back, trying to hide them away from him.
He sighed. "Well... if ya gotta go... I hope ya keep in touch then."
"I will. ...I know we all will."
He nodded once more, trying a smile again, but it wavered, and I wasn't sure why. When I looked at Hoshi, she seemed aware that it was what she said that had brought about more grief. His reaction still confused me, though, despite her own understanding.
Her hand lightly touched his arm. "I know I'll see you soon," she added quietly, a meek but playful little smile gracing her lips. "I just don't think transmissions alone would be the same after this stay here. ...After everything I tried to put behind me from so long ago."
A large grin found its way back onto his face.
What did that mean? I wondered. What had happened?
At once then, after so much happiness she evoked in my father, I watched a tear fall, her eyes now glistening with them. Dad put his arms around her, hoping to comfort her sorrow, her already quiet crying becoming stifled by the downpour that started up once more.
"I feel like I'm saying goodbye all over again like I had to on Enterprise..." she told him, her voice strangled to a quiet whisper.
"I know..." he murmured in agreement, nodding a little.
When she at last stopped her tears, she took her head from his shoulder and looked into his eyes. "...I'm not saying goodbye this time, Trip." She hesitated a moment, then leaned in and let her lips softly brush his, lingering a moment before at last forcing herself to pull away.
Hoshi sniffed back tears that might have slipped down her cheeks. "Even if it can't be anything more than that," she told him almost inaudibly.
He pushed a loose strand of hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. "...We'll see."
They both stood staring into each other's eyes, unaware of the rest of the world passing by before them. Unaware that the car was still waiting for its final passenger, that soon it would drive off and leave behind me and my father and David. Unaware that maybe that would be the final time we would all be together at once... before all our lives might change... no... *would* change. Unaware that the future was uncertain, and that, for all we knew, it could end here. But there in the rain, time stood still and looked sorrowfully at what things had become, and in its guilt for what it had done, allowed a moment to stretch into so much longer... if for no one else, for Dad and Hoshi.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The sounds of static popped over the old screen, and in fizzled Enterprise's mess hall, where Dad, Hoshi, and Travis sat, laughing as they played some kind of card game.
Dad put down a few cards on the table, only half paying attention to what he was doing, while Travis tried his best not to look eager to take them up. Hoshi was too busy trying not to look toward the camera.
"Trying out a new gift?" Travis asked whoever was behind the device. His voice sounded slightly metallic from the age of the recording.
"Well, I wouldn't call it new, but since I haven't had the chance to use it until now, it might as well be," came a female voice from off camera.
The camera moved from Travis to Hoshi then to Dad, and back to stay on Hoshi.
Hoshi put down a few cards, then nervously looked back and forth from the table to the camera. "Laura, how interesting can a poker game be?" Hoshi asked, blushing at still being the focus of the recording.
"Come on, Hoshi, have fun with it!" Laura told her. "I just want to catch everyone off duty for once. It's just for fun!"
Hoshi reddened even more, then ducked down behind her cards.
"Aw, c'mon..." Laura urged her.
The camera zoomed in on the still flushed Hoshi, who was suddenly replaced by my dad, a large grin stretched across his face, and waving.
"Hey!"
The camera zoomed out again, and Dad sat back in his seat, laughing.
Hoshi smiled at him in gratitude, and he smiled back briefly, then just resumed picking up a card or two from the pile.
"Fine, Commander, be that way," Laura sighed, then laughed.
His smile just widened. "Oh, I plan on it."
The camera zoomed over to Travis, looking now pretty distraught at his hand.
Laura then paned over the table, topped with a mess of random objects all unique to the individual that brought them- an assurance that they would each return with what they had brought to play another game sometime later. It was obvious that Hoshi had brought items that she knew neither of the two men would want to walk away with: an assortment of pink and/or sparkly objects, many of them cosmetics. Dad, on the other hand, had just brought a bunch of nuts and bolts and such that engineering could spare, and Travis had taken a handful of game board pieces. Presently, though, Travis had a pretty small group beside him, and though Hoshi had a fair pile, Dad's was a mess of most of his original pieces, much of Travis's, and a number of Hoshi's.
"Commander, do you have to win them so unmercifully?" joked Laura, then in mock-reprimand, added, "Shame...."
A large grin formed on his face and he hardly tried to stifle back a chuckle. "They're just gonna hafta learn." He got up, taking his empty mug- and cards- with him.
The camera took a dizzying spin back to Travis.
"I'm never playing poker with Commander Tucker again," he informed her in good nature, laughing a little. "Or any other game that involves losing."
Laura turned to Hoshi, looking in deep concentration at her cards, but, in addition to the shy officer, she found Dad taking a short pause behind her, peeking over her shoulder and *also* concentrating on her hand.
"Aha! Cheater!" Laura called out, causing Dad to jump and nearly drop the mug. "No *wonder* you keep winning!"
Hoshi turned around and saw him trying to look innocent, and at first took up a very fluffy looking object with the intention of throwing it at him, but then thought better of pelting a superior officer on the head with anything, be it plush or not.
"Is something the matter, Ensign?" asked a voice from off camera, monotonous and inquisitive.
"Sub-commander!" Hoshi announced in surprise, then noticed her arm was still raised in preparation to launch the fluffy thing at her commander, and immediately put it down, her face red with embarrassment. "No, no, nothing's wrong."
"Just a little disagreement, ma'am," Laura informed her, the camera drifting over to incorporate T'Pol into the shot.
Her eyes glanced over at Dad, standing with an air of looseness and playfulness about him, and she watched as he directed his smile at her. "...I wouldn't doubt it."
Dad's smile widened. It was obvious that he often ruffled T'Pol to annoyance, or at least as far as her Vulcan stoicism would bend toward it.
She then began to walk to the door, but turned back and set her eyes on my dad once more. "Mr. Tucker, you've finished your dinner, am I correct?"
He shrugged. "Yeah. Why?"
"My console is malfunctioning, and I would appreciate your assistance."
He shrugged. "Just lead the way."
She nodded once, and no one could tell by the indifferent expression on her face whether that nod was a show of appreciation or just a confirmation that he had done something she expected of him without even really listening to his response. Dad just accepted it either way, knowing that was the best he would ever get out of a Vulcan. He had a better shot of getting her to punch him in the face than to smile at him, and he knew that.
"Oh-" Travis began from behind, and all eyes and the camera unconsciously turned in his direction. "Now that you mention it... I just remembered that the navigation system's been a little stubborn the past couple days. Every time I check it seems fine, but something's still not aligned just right, and I know you've got an eye for these things."
Dad nodded knowingly for a moment, realizing that everyone was going to take this opportunity to dump all of their malfunctions on him. "No problem," he said anyway.
Travis smiled his thanks and walked out, following T'Pol, who had gone while Travis was finishing up making his request.
"Uh... Commander?"
Dad turned around and faced Hoshi, his smile faded into a look of courteous happiness as he noted the amusing irony of how the others had gotten the best of the cheater, but was still disappointed to add more work to his already busy schedule.
"I was hoping you could fix the level of background noise the UT's picking up lately." She grimaced, knowing he didn't really need that extra work.
He let his smile widen a little. "No problem, Hoshi," he said sincerely.
"Thank you," she told him, her grimace becoming a smile at his kindness, then leaving with one last look.
The mess hall doors closed with a hiss and left Dad standing there. He shook his head, then walked to the table where they had played their card game and dug through the remaining items the other two forgot to take, reclaiming the pieces he knew engineering would need soon. He looked up at Laura, realizing her camera was still on him.
"If you ask me t' fix that camera, I swear I'll throw Hoshi's plush thing at'cha," he joked, even though he looked serious enough for it not to be completely out of the question.
Laura laughed. "No... I promise I won't."
"Good. We've already got *enough* t' do down there," he mumbled to himself. "It's like the whole ship's fallin' apart...."
Laura still didn't turn off the camera. Dad looked over and noticed that she still wasn't moving.
"Jeez, you're worse than *me*. What's so interesting about me pickin' up after a game of poker?"
"Same thing that's interesting about that random game."
Dad, only half listening to what she said, reached across the table to dig through Hoshi's pile. Laura tried to hold back a giggle as a devilish thought crossed her mind. Her stifled laughter could be heard while the lens zoomed in on his behind.
"He-ey!" Dad laughed, noticing what she was doing, and trying to get out of the shot, or at least put his hand in the way of it.
Laura zoomed back out, laughing, "Just kidding, Commander!"
Both of them knew that it was a good thing he wasn't as strict as he could have been, or, for that matter, that there wasn't anyone else in the mess hall. That was when they both became aware of the fact that they were by themselves and needed to get off to wherever they were needed.
Dad stood up and dumped the nuts and bolts into a pocket, then sighed, turning to face Laura. "Well.... It was fun while it lasted."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
As I picked up the last of Dad's old pictures, I took a last long look at how the first crew of the NX-01 looked in the dim light of the attic, at their happy, hopeful, smiling faces, save for T'Pol, who, I'm told, never smiled at all, and pushed some of the dust from the frame with my thumb.
"Back when I wasn't such an old man."
I turned to the voice behind me and looked up, Dad grinning down at me, and smiled back.
"Yer not old...."
"Then what's all this gray, then?" he asked, being jokingly adamant.
"It's the attic, Dad," I stated, losing the smile to try to appear serious. "All this dust up here just collects on yer head."
"Oh?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at me as though he were challenging me.
The smile found its way back over my lips as I recalled something. "I think the attic dust might be a good look for ya." I watched his eyes narrow in confusion before turning back to put more into the box. "After all, ya *are* startin' t' turn into a ladies' man.... Don't think I didn't see that kiss with Hoshi...."
I looked back up at him, just shaking his head and chuckling softly to himself.
"So what was it then? Are ya gonna tell me what's goin' on between you two or what?"
"Would'ja let me have a little privacy?" he laughed.
"Nope." I sat on my feet. "C'mon, now, out with it."
He sighed, biting at the edge of his mouth. "I dunno.... Maybe it might be somethin', maybe not. Last time she kissed me, we didn't see each other for... I don' even *remember* how many years...."
"*Last* time?!" I exclaimed in surprise. "Yer tellin' me there was *another* time?"
He just hid back a smile and gave me a look of happily adamant furtiveness as he lifted up one of the two last boxes of the pictures and transmissions.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey- don't avoid the question," I told him, unable to stop myself from giggling all the while.
He just turned his blue eyes on me and smiled, saying nothing.
"I'm not gonna get you t' tell me, am I?"
"Nope."
As I sat trying to figure out when that kiss could have been, he just shook his head and told me, still laughing a little bit, "Maybe some other time, K'Ela. That's whole different story altogether."
"Fine.... I'll just have to settle for 'later,' I guess," I said, standing and smacking the dust from my pants.
"You never could just leave the past alone, could'ja?" he said, giving me a little smile.
"Nope," I told him, echoing his own previous response.
He chuckled at my stubbornness. "Just bring that last box down into the den. That's the one that's all just pictures, right?"
"Yep."
He started to walk down the stairs and I could hear his voice drift back up to me: "Jeez, now where am I gonna find this many picture frames...?"
My eyes drifted back to the picture.
I guess this really *wasn't* the perfect life he envisioned for himself on the day this picture was taken. It was probably the furthest from it.
I closed the box and stood up with it under my arm. I stood in the middle of the room and looked around me at the dust-layered room, every few meters now clean square pieces of floor where there once sat the neatly placed boxes from Dad's days in Starfleet. I could hear my shoes scraping against the wood floor as I turned around, taking in as much of the room as I could before I went downstairs. I knew I wouldn't be coming up here again for a long while, now that it wasn't needed anymore. There were so many more things to look toward now, so many wonderful things and so many new memories to make of them.
As my eyes scanned the ground for the final time, they caught a glance of my bear in my still open box, its brown fur clumped together with age and wear and powdered with a light layer of dust, but still soft. I smiled, then picked it up and placed it on top of my dad's box of pictures. Maybe when my son is born, he can have it.
I thought a moment.
Hesitantly, I placed the bear back in its box. No.... It needs to be... different. I understood then. I understood and I knew my father understood, and David might have been beginning to understand, even if it was a struggle.
I sighed, and stared into the dimness, thinking over all that had to be given up and all that had come of it. For some reason, I did not wonder then if anything should have happened any differently. For the first time, I didn't need to know.
I closed my eyes and smiled.
...No, not perfect. But happy.
I pulled on the metal chain and with a click, the attic went dark.
~Fin~
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I hope you all enjoyed "Picture Imperfect."