"Welcome back to the twentieth anniversary commemoration of the Breen Attack on Earth," said an interviewer. "We're here with Gina Nolan and her daughter, Gabrielle. Now, Gina, I understand you are one of the women who were not only widowed during the attack, but you were also pregnant."
"Yeah, that's right," Gina said, glancing around a little nervously.
"Can you tell us a little bit about the days before?" asked the interviewer.
The interview was taking place in Gina's home, so other family members were present but remained out of camera range. "Uh, yeah," Gina said, "I was at home on Proxima Centauri. Doing, you know, usual things. I had a teaching job and I was supposed to be preparing for class, but the news was on, and it was relentless."
"I see. When did you begin to suspect something was specifically happening to your family?"
"I heard about an attack in China, where bombs were dropped. Michael, he had a lab in Beijing. But you know, China's large. I know he wasn't necessarily affected. So I waited for a while, but then the news just kept coming and coming. I mean, you people never, you never let up. And then a military shuttle landed in the front yard and it was obvious."
Gabrielle held her mother's hand as the older woman spoke.
"Let's go back, even before," said the interviewer. "Tell me about life with Michael Nolan."
"It was a regular life, I guess. How do people have a marriage when they work on different planets? It was like that, it was that sort of a thing. And we would deal with it every day, every time one of us called the other. You say these good-byes and they're intense and awful but you can't be casual because you; you never know."
"What did Michael do?"
"He was a Xenobotanist, studying Bajoran dicotyledens."
"There's a square named for him in your neighborhood, yes?" asked the interviewer.
"Yes, that's right," Gina confirmed.
"And Gabrielle is, of course, your child from them."
"I am," said Gabby, looking a little defiant at age nineteen.
"She looks like her father."
"And there you have it," said the interviewer, "another family coping with the aftermath of a tragedy that, for them, never really fades away."
=/\=
"Why didn't the interviewer talk about Kittriss and Freela and our new family, Mom?"
"I dunno, baby. I guess it doesn't fit the storyline when the pregnant widow marries a Klingon."
"Well, it should," Gabby said, "Kit is my father as much as Dad was. And Freela is as much my sis as, well, as I would've had if Dad had lived."
"Baby," Gina said, "that's all I've ever wanted to hear, or know. Do you know that Dad looks down on you? And he thinks to himself that you've done pretty well for yourself. You've got college, you've got interests. You have friends and a life. He's very proud of you. I know this."
"Mom, did you know Dad looks down on you, too? And he thinks you're doing okay, too. You've got love and a family and you don't let anybody tell you what to do or where to get off."
"Ha, yeah, I guess so, baby. I didn't want to tell that interviewer, but the last time your Dad and I said good-bye, you know what he said to me?"
"You never told me, Mom."
"He said I don't need to be told to take care of things 'cause I always do, and I always know."
"Well, you do."
"You know when I hear him, baby?"
"No, Mom."
"I hear him in Kit's voice. And I hear him in yours."