AN: Here we are, another piece to this one, as we prepare to see the Musiker Collective in full swing of welcoming home their newest little member! (I make no excuse for any of the hijinks, sweetness, or ridiculous cuteness that may be to follow later…LOL).
I hope you enjoy! Please don't forget to let me know what you think!
111
Raffi felt like the doctors were the best ones to handle the care of their little girl, so she decided that her efforts were best focused on the woman she loved.
Raffi had no doubt that there would be a great deal that had to be dealt with, emotionally, surrounding their daughter. They had time to handle all that would be to come. There would be happiness and love—all the wonderful things that a baby girl would bring them—but there were likely to be a great many other emotions, too, especially as Seven calmed from the actual act of giving birth and was able to process things in a different way.
Raffi wanted only to offer her the security, support, comfort, and love that she would need.
Sickbay was a bit of a whirlwind. Raffi felt a little dizzied by everything that was taking place all at once. Her attention felt divided as she flicked her focus from one thing to the next. It didn't take Raffi long to realize exactly how it was that the Doctor and Dr. Crusher worked so well together. While the Doctor was able to provide any straight-forward information, as needed, without so much as truly batting a holographic eye, Dr. Crusher was able to easily step in and soften the blow with just the right touch of sensitivity and nurturing. They complemented each other better than they probably realized.
As the Doctor spouted off information in the form of a practical scientific report of Seven's statistics and the baby's medical statistics, Dr. Crusher discreetly beckoned for B'Elanna and approached Seven with the softer touch of someone who had clearly once been in the position of "brand new mother." After they had carefully attended to Seven's post-birth needs, Dr. Crusher coaxed the newborn out of Seven's arms for a medical examination, promising Seven that her brand new little girl looked perfect, but needed just a little attention to be ready to spend all of her time bonding with her mommies.
That was when Raffi knew it was her time to step in and distract Seven.
"Did you see her?" Seven asked.
Raffi smiled. There was no need to hold it back. She'd hardly stopped smiling. She nodded and took Seven's hand in her own. With her other hand, she used the damp cloth she'd acquired to mop at Seven's face and brush her hair back.
Seven knew, very well, that Raffi had seen their baby, but Raffi also remembered how she'd felt after Gabe's birth. She'd felt like her mind wasn't her own. She remembered that it had felt like weeks passed before she felt really in control of what she was thinking.
"I saw her," Raffi said simply. "Seven—she is beautiful."
Seven smiled and nodded, but the crease was between her brows, now, and she was starting to show the first signs of frowning.
Dr. Crusher had taken the baby just far enough away so that there wouldn't be any easy observation of what she was doing, and so that they couldn't overhear what she was saying to B'Elanna, who was helping in the examination of the baby. Still, they were close enough together that the separation wasn't stirring up any extreme insecurities in either Seven or Raffi.
"Raffi…"
"It's OK," Raffi said, hearing the catch in Seven's throat. "She's OK."
"She's…Borg," Seven said.
"We don't know that, Sweetheart," Raffi said. "We don't know…well…we just don't know, OK? But it doesn't matter. If she's Borg or…whatever…it doesn't matter." Raffi put on her best smile for Seven. "The greatest love of my life has been a Borg, Seven. I'm not afraid to love another one."
Raffi wiped Seven's tears away and ignored the ones that blurred her own vision.
"Seven—are we still thinking…Aurora?" Raffi asked, trying to change the subject. Seven smiled. It was a hint of a genuine smile that turned up one side of her mouth slightly before the other followed suit. It had been the same smile Raffi had seen when the name was first suggested—the whole Musiker family had spent time scouring lists of names with some pretty particular things they'd wanted to consider. It had been Elnor that had picked Aurora from the list, and it had been one of his favorites that he'd had to contribute for their consideration.
"You want to change your mind?" Seven asked.
"No," Raffi said. "No—I'm happy. If you are."
"Here she is," Dr. Crusher said, bringing the baby back with the others just behind her. "She's all cleaned up and ready to spend some quality time with her mommies."
Raffi listened as the Doctor, beaming with something she almost believed was pride, if he was capable of feeling such a thing, recounted all of the baby's statistics. Her weight was a little low, but they were assured that she would make up for that in no time with proper feeding. She was healthy, and all her vitals were just what they wanted them to be. In addition, there were no signs of any sort of rapid cellular growth of any kind, leading them to believe that the work done by the nanonannies to make her as perfect as possible and to bring her quickly into the world had worked—but not at the cost of her well-being or normal development now that she was born.
Safe in Seven's arms, the newborn that had started to fuss over her situation was easily quieted again. Seven examined her with all the expected care of a new mother, and Raffi leaned over Seven to get a good look at the now-clean baby who, accepting that all was calm for a moment, clearly decided a little rest was in order.
"Does she have a name yet?" The Doctor asked. "We'll need to enter something into her file, but we can continue to call her Baby Musiker until you've selected something you find satisfactory."
"Aurora," Raffi offered. "Rori, for short. We—never settled on any additional names."
"They are not necessary," the Doctor said. "But we can add anything you'd like later, as they become available."
"Aurora is a beautiful name," Dr. Crusher offered.
"Elnor picked it out," Seven said.
"We wanted something with an A to pay homage to…to Annika," Raffi said.
"And I wanted her name to start with an R for Raffi," Seven said, making eye contact with Raffi.
"We settled on Aurora," Raffi continued. "And Rori for a nickname."
"It's beautiful," Dr. Crusher confirmed again. "And she's beautiful."
Aurora looked very much like a newborn baby, and Raffi knew that they would see a great deal of changes as her features took on their actual shape over the next few days. For the moment, it was obvious that she was a beautiful blend of the genetics that each of them brought to the table, and Raffi looked forward to seeing how she would change as she adjusted to life in the world.
"She's Borg," Seven said.
Raffi's chest ached to see the expression on Seven's face. The words weren't quite a question, but there was question in them. She looked at the Doctor and at Dr. Crusher, imploring either of them to tell her something. They glanced at each other, before both looked at Seven.
"Aurora…" the Doctor started.
"Rori?" Dr. Crusher interrupted. Seven nodded.
"Rori," the Doctor corrected, "appears to be the first biologically partial-Borg individual ever recorded."
"So—she is Borg," Seven said.
"She's quarter-Borg, or maybe half-Borg," Dr. Crusher said. "From what we're able to tell. Of course, we have a lot to learn, and Rori is going to teach us so much. We don't yet have terminology for everything, and we don't have definitive answers. For now, what we know is that she is healthy. We can learn the rest as we go."
"She has Borg implants," Seven said, again letting her words come out as a cross between a question and a statement again.
"There's only been an initial scan done," B'Elanna offered, from over Dr. Crusher's shoulder. Dr. Crusher moved to allow B'Elanna to step forward. Raffi thought it was good to have her there. Seven found comfort in B'Elanna's presence, and the absolute lack of judgement on B'Elanna's face—as on the faces of everyone else currently present in their area—was soothing to even Raffi. "When she's had a little time to rest and adjust to life, we'd like to do a few more scans. What we can tell, immediately, is that she does have nodes and implants that are very similar to your own. The difference, of course, being that all of hers were created organically, whereas some of yours were installed hardware instead of those created solely by nanoprobes."
"It was me," Seven said. "Me and my nanoprobes. We made her a Borg."
"We'll have to…to consider things a bit more," Dr. Crusher offered, "before we have any really definite answers as to the how and why of everything. There are so many factors that could have come into play. The important thing is that we recognize that Rori is healthy, and she appears to be quite happy."
"And I'm going to get started, immediately, adapting things to help us manage all of Rori's possible needs," B'Elanna assured them.
"Will she need to regenerate?" Seven asked.
"We'll have to see," B'Elanna said. "But—I'll adapt a bassinet for her, Seven. Either way, we'll make sure she gets what she needs." B'Elanna made her way right next to Seven, and she rested a hand on Seven's shoulder as she looked at the baby that Seven held. "She's perfect, and I mean that."
"I love her," Seven said. "But—I didn't want her to be Borg."
B'Elanna made eye contact with Raffi. For just a moment, Raffi felt more connected to the half-Klingon than she'd ever felt before.
"I understand," B'Elanna said. "When—when Miral was born, I worried about her being even a quarter Klingon. I worried about the ridges. I worried about how people would see her, because I knew how people would see her. I realized, though, that I can't control how other people see her, but I can help shape how she sees herself. I can help her see herself differently than I've seen myself—than the way that other people have made me see myself."
"Miral is a wonderful individual," Seven said. "So is Owen."
B'Elanna smiled at her and shrugged her shoulders slightly.
"Rori will be, too," B'Elanna said. "She's already perfect. We just have to help her grow. She'll take care of the rest."
"And the others?" Seven asked. "When they look at her, they will only see Borg."
"When they look at her, Seven," Raffi interrupted, "they will see Rori. The ones who know her and love her, they will see Rori. The ones who don't?"
"They weren't ever going to see her anyway," B'Elanna said. "They're the ones who see…Borg, and Klingon, and Romulan…"
"And even addict," Raffi said with a laugh. "They refuse to see anything else that doesn't fit their preconceived notions. And those people don't matter anyway, Seven."
"They don't matter at all," Dr. Crusher said. "All that matters is that Rori is happy and healthy, and I'll keep reminding you of that when necessary. Now—B'Elanna's going to see to a few things and make sure that we are fully-equipped to handle all of Rori's needs. I am off-duty to the rest of sickbay, and only assigned the Musiker Collective—Captain's orders. If you don't mind, Seven, let's make sure that you and Rori are both well, and let's see about letting you spend your recovery time in your quarters. I think you'll both be more comfortable there, and we can start talking to Rori about how she feels about trying her first meal."
"I think we would be so much happier in our quarters," Raffi said. "Wouldn't we, Seven? Are you ready to take Rori home?" Seven nodded, not offering words. Raffi could easily sense that Seven would be a thousand times better if she could have privacy and her own space in which to come to terms with everything and get used to her new role. Raffi thought that, maybe, she might even be allowed to hold their daughter in a space where Seven wasn't dealing with a massive amount of overwhelm and input. "Will she be ready to move this soon?"
Dr. Crusher smiled, scanning Seven.
"I don't think there will be any problem," she said. "The nanoprobes are already hard at work on healing Seven. She could probably walk back to your quarters without assistance. Still, we'll take some precautions to make sure that everyone arrives safely and comfortably. We'll have you settled in a few minutes, if you're ready to go. I have it on good authority that there might be a certain Romulan hovering around outside sickbay that would be more than happy to help us move Seven."
Raffi smiled.
"And he's going to be absolutely enamored of his baby sister," she offered.