Author's Note: Here is chapter 2. Admittedly, it's quite short, but seems a good place to pause. Because it was asked about, yes, this story does contain Ronin, but- while he remains the same, Beverly's reactions will be significantly different from canon, as are the circumstances surrounding her time on Caldos. So, please don't think this a mere sub rosa slight retelling.
The service hadn't been as bad as she'd imagined. It hadn't been pleasant, but she'd found herself quite capable of making it through without collapsing with grief. It was simmering below the surface, running through her veins, but she managed to keep it buried in the presence of others.
There was something, though. Something, else, bubbling in her blood. Or was it nipping at the edges of her brain? She wasn't certain, but it was there nonetheless, underlying the deep sadness.
She was one of the last to turn away from the burial site, dutifully keeping watch as people paid their respects to both her and her grandmother. A neighbor of Nana's had stopped to share her condolences and to tell Beverly how proudly her grandmother had always spoken of her. It was nice to hear and she appreciated the gesture. As the woman gave her a gentle hug and turned to leave, Beverly caught the site of a camellia being tossed upon the casket. Following the trajectory upwards to the source, she was surprised to see a man she was unfamiliar with. She'd never seen him on the colony, and she knew most everyone. Of course, she'd been away for a long time and the colony had expanded a good deal since her absence. Her gaze met his and he chanced a smile in her direction. She tried to return the gesture, but found herself frozen. Try as she might, she couldn't place the accompanying emotion. It wasn't fear, per se, but - actually, she had no idea what it was that was now pulsing just below her ribcage. It felt akin to nerves perhaps, or a gut instinct perhaps, as if her body knew something she did not.
The Knowing.
That's what Nana had always called it. A tangible, physical feeling sent to guide you. Beverly had only been 6 or 7 when her grandmother had shown her where to feel it.
'Take your fingers and trace along the bottom of your rib cages. Do you feel where they come together in the middle?' She'd gently guided her fingers to the solar plexus area. 'There. This is where you will feel it when it comes.
'When does it come, Nana?' She'd asked.
'Difficult to say Child. Difficult to say.'
Beverly blinked against the sudden onslaught of memory, her hand gently resting on the upper portion of her abdomen. She remembered now. She'd had this feeling before. The last time she'd felt this was the morning of the Disaster. She'd bounded down the stairs that morning to tell her grandmother she'd felt the pulsing, but stopped abruptly at the sight of the older woman sitting at the table, both hands over her stomach, a deeply concerned grimace upon her face.
By the time she waded through a recollection she didn't even know she had, the graveyard was almost empty. A cold wind swept through, prickling her skin and she turned, suddenly sensing someone was watching her.
Deanna Troi had waited for her friend, in case she was needed, and to simply be a loving presence. She'd kept her distance, talking with some of the colonists while Beverly had conversations of her own, planning to wait for her at the entrance. She'd stood at the gate, waiting, when something grasped at her attention. It was so sudden and intense it almost overwhelmed her. It was a bundle of memory and emotion and an energy she honestly couldn't place, radiating through the cemetery with a force she'd only felt from her mother.
And it was coming from Beverly.
Her eyes instantly fell on the doctor's back, and just as instantly, she was caught staring.
Deanna smiled and began to close the distance between them. She was bewildered. She'd never experienced anything like that with a non-telepath, and certainly never with Beverly. Beverly wasn't a telepath, she reminded herself, and, reaching out just to make certain of a fact she already knew to be true, reaffirmed it.
Crossing her arms over her chest against the drop in temperature, the doctor took one more look at the casket in front of her and sighed. If Beverly had any idea of what just happened, she certainly wasn't showing it. She smiled at Deanna, grateful for the company.
"Well, I guess I should be getting back to the house. I've got some things to do. It's only a few minutes from here, would you mind coming along?"
"I'd love to." Deanna smiled, and the two women began the walk back to the cottage on the edge of town.
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