He has taught at Orion University for some months now, and is beginning to feel settled and at home. The position, Chair of Cybernetics, includes a small but very comfortable house and a yard large enough for a garden. Recently, he has begun to attempt to grow flowers, with mixed results. Botany, it seems, is not necessarily the hard science he had always supposed it to be, but rather has a certain artistry involved that he has yet to master.
Lore – or more precisely, his head – is safely hidden away in a corner of the attic, until such time as Data feels able to decide what should be done with him. For now, at least, it is still too painful a subject for him to consider for long.
Sometimes he still dreams of the moment when she fell. Though still not prone to nightmares as a rule, there are a handful of darker memories like this one that haunt his dreams now and then. Some nights, as happens tonight, they tangle with other memories in a way that can be most unsettling. And some nights, as happens tonight, he wakes with an unpleasant jolt, forced to remind himself of where he is.
After a long moment, he turns to sit on the edge of the bed. The window here looks out onto the back garden, and though the flowerbeds are not yet what he hopes they will be soon, he is still coming to enjoy the view of his handiwork, especially under the early morning light that shines now. A faint smile quirks up the corner of his mouth.
Maya sits up in the bed next to him then, studying him quietly for a moment. "Did you have a bad dream?" she asks, frowning, and he nods.
"Yes," he admits, and she reaches out to him. He turns to embrace her, and for a time they hold each other quietly.
"Tell me about it," she coaxes at last, though when he hesitates to reply she knows at once why he is reluctant, and shifts back far enough to allow her to see his face. "Data. That was over a year ago. I'm fine. And I've even started learning how to manage those endless faculty parties your coworkers insist on having. I haven't had any more problems."
"Yes, you have seemed fine," Data agrees, though this does not reassure him now any more than it has the other times he has told himself this. It had taken almost three frightening days for Maya to fully recover from the effects of Lore's weapon, and these memories, too, are forever in Data's mind.
When she was better, Arzin had returned to the Hawking, to do what he could to keep a lookout for any further interest from Starfleet regarding Mudd's World. By now, the Midian androids were well on their way to the new home they had found, aboard the ships that Data and Maya had helped them design and build. Having this task to focus on had done much to help Maya regain her own balance, and for the last several months she has seemed much as she used to. Though at first unwilling to follow Data's example and try teaching, she has recently begun tutoring engineering students and has, with teasing reluctance, admitted that she enjoys it.
"I've seemed fine, and yet you're still worrying about me." She tilts her head, studying him with a faintly scolding expression.
"You do still have nightmares," he points out, quietly. Though her reaction to them is nothing compared to that first, horrific night terror, there are still too many nights when she wakes in a panic that she does her best to hide, leaving Data scarcely any less frightened himself.
"Yes, sometimes," she admits, with a sigh. "But I can't even describe how much... calmer everything is for me now, compared to what it was. I'm getting better all the time. We both just have to be patient." Smiling, she nuzzles a kiss against his cheek.
"That is easier said than done," he replies, with the slight, wry inflection that is still as close as he can come to humor, but he smiles at the contact despite his concern. "We are still not certain why there were so many initial difficulties with the transfer. Those issues could still recur."
"They could," she concedes. "There could also be an unexpected gamma ray burst that might destroy half the planet, or a random temporal distortion – there are always a thousand things that can go wrong. You can't think about all of them all the time."
"You are correct. And yet I still cannot help but... worry." It is still a little strange to him, to realize that he can be so overwhelmed with such a thing as worry, and he turns to her for further reassurance.
"No, I don't suppose you can, any more than I can stop worrying about you." She smiles and kisses him again. "It's only human, after all."
Author's Note: Complete at last! Many thanks to any and all who have read along this far, and I hope you've enjoyed it. Reviews always welcome.
