AN: Here we are, another piece to this one.

I hope you enjoy! Please don't forget to let me know what you think!

111

James Tiberius Kirk was legendary among Starfleet captains, and Jean-Luc Picard stood in his presence, introducing himself as the captain of the Enterprise-D, explaining the Nexus, and asking for his help. Any of that, alone, would be bizarre. Having to do all of it as Kirk came to terms with the fact that they were currently located in a vision of his past, was something else entirely.

Jean-Luc could see the hesitation on Kirk's face, but he could hardly fault the man. Since Jean-Luc's arrival at whatever corner of the Nexus it was that belonged to Kirk, a home had been restored to Kirk, in an idyllic natural location, a lost and beloved pet had been restored to him, and someone named Antonia waited for him.

"I understand your hesitation," Jean-Luc said.

"History considers me dead," Kirk said. "Who am I to argue with history?"

"You are a Starfleet officer," Jean-Luc said. "You have a duty…"

"Don't lecture me about duty," Kirk interrupted. "I was out saving the galaxy when your grandfather was in diapers, Picard. If you say you understand me so much—and this Nexus is all that you claim it to be, then explain to me what it was you saw."

"I beg your pardon?" Jean-Luc responded.

"Where did you come from? What did you see? What—visions from your past appeared to you?" Kirk asked.

"Do my fantasies matter?" Jean-Luc asked.

Kirk smirked at him.

"If what you say is true, you walked right into mine and demanded that I leave it…leave everything," Kirk said. "Now—I'd like to know what you saw from your past."

Jean-Luc sighed.

"It wasn't from my past," he said. "Not exactly. Not all of it."

"The future, then?" Kirk asked.

"I might wish it were my future," Jean-Luc said.

"Tell me," Kirk pressed, almost reminding Jean-Luc of a child eager for story time. The magic of the Nexus had certainly intoxicated Kirk. Of course, Jean-Luc couldn't blame him. Until he'd had to drag himself away from Beverly—who he had to remind himself was not the real, true Beverly—and all his pretty little children, Jean-Luc had felt drunk with the hope and happiness it promised.

"The Nexus gave me a home," Jean-Luc said.

"Your home?" Kirk asked. "One that you—once had?"

He gestured around himself like Jean-Luc might say that their visions were similar. Jean-Luc shook his head.

"A home unlike any I've ever had," he said. "I've never had a home like that. Not one in which I was the man of the household, so to speak. I've hardly allowed myself to dream of it."

Kirk smiled.

"Was there a woman in this home?" He asked. Jean-Luc laughed to himself, once again feeling a slight swimming sensation in his mind as even the memory of what the Nexus had given him made him feel a rush of something like euphoria.

"The only woman," Jean-Luc said, "perhaps, that's ever really mattered."

"Antonia…" Kirk said.

"Beverly," Jean-Luc said, feeling as though they were showing each other cards at the end of a high-stakes poker game.

"Was there something more?" Kirk asked.

"Children," Jean-Luc said. "Five of them…and Beverly's expecting our sixth. My brother and his family are coming for dinner, and it's almost Christmas."

"Wonderful," Kirk said. "Beautiful. Go back to them." He slapped his palm down on the counter between them.

"Wait…what?" Jean-Luc responded, the loud noise jarring him from the daydream of the Nexus's vision.

"Go back to them, Picard," Kirk said. "What is there out there that's so important?"

"If we go back, we can stop Soran from blowing up the star. We can save the planet that will be in ruins—uninhabitable. We can save surrounding planets and their people from possible disasters and famine. We can possibly save my ship and crew…"

"Duty," Kirk said. "All you speak about is duty. Starfleet. Everyone else. Your ship. I was like you once ...so completely blinded by duty and obligations that I couldn't see anything past this uniform. And in the end, what did it get me? An empty house. ...Not this time. Antonia is waiting for me, Picard. Beverly's waiting for you. A whole clan of Picards. Go and see the sixth one born. Don't waste the opportunity that's been given to you. Don't live with the regrets and the lost time. I spent too much time doing that—learn from me. Go back to what you love. Embrace your second chance or…however it works in this Nexus."

Jean-Luc's stomach tightened. Within the Nexus, Kirk cared very little for duty and honor. He saw what Starfleet had cost him, and he saw very little of what he'd gained from his service—of course, dead as history believed him to be—what had he gained from Starfleet?

Kirk no longer cared for duty. He cared only for the things that he regretted not having done, perhaps. He cared about righting things.

Jean-Luc understood that, too.

"That's just it," Jean-Luc said.

"What is?" Kirk asked. Jean-Luc followed the man as he carried a tray with breakfast on it up the stairs, presumably to join Antonia in the bedroom.

"I haven't been entirely honest with you," Jean-Luc admitted. "It isn't just duty…"

Kirk stopped walking and turned on the stair to somewhat face Jean-Luc.

"Out there?" Kirk asked.

"Beverly is aboard my ship," Jean-Luc said. "Right now. She may be injured, for all I know. The explosion of the star—I have no way of knowing how it might affect her."

"You would go back to save her," Kirk mused, "rather than stay here with her?"

"The real Beverly is out there," Jean-Luc said. "I would rather have the reality than the fantasy."

"Or the fantasy turned reality?" Kirk challenged. "Tell me—do you have any hope of the home that you saw, Picard? The family?"

Jean-Luc's stomach ached with the question that he'd been chewing on since he'd dragged himself away from his vision.

"I would like to think that I may," Jean-Luc said. "The Enterprise is a family ship now. Beverly could remain aboard, with me. She could—keep her career. We could raise our children."

"What about a home?" Kirk asked.

"If Beverly was there," Jean-Luc said, "then even the ship's quarters could feel like the home I saw here. It wasn't about the place…it was more about the way that I felt in the place, with my family…my beautiful, wonderful family."

"That's my point," Kirk said. "In the end, it's the loneliness. The emptiness. That's what suffocates you. That's what kills you slowly. Starfleet can't fill it. Not even the love of the Enterprise—of adventure—can fill it. Not entirely. Take my word for it. It's a start, but you want something more in the end, when it's all gone and you're left alone with only yourself and your regrets to keep you company."

"You'll help me, then?" Jean-Luc asked.

"I'm not losing my second chance, Picard," Kirk offered.

Jean-Luc felt frustrated as he followed Kirk. He was unwelcomed there, surely, but he followed him right into the bedroom when he opened the door, reminding himself that this was all some kind of dream, anyway. He was immediately surprised, though—and probably every bit as surprised as Kirk—to find they were in a barn instead of a bedroom.

"This isn't your bedroom," Jean-Luc said.

"No, it's not. ...It's better!"

"Better?"

"This is my uncle's barn in Idaho. I took this horse out for a ride eleven years ago ...on a spring day, ...like this. If I'm right, this is the day I met Antonia. ...This Nexus of yours is very clever. I can start all over again ...and do things right from day one."

Jean-Luc didn't argue with Kirk. He didn't argue, either, with the dream-like flow of the Nexus. Instead, he saddled another conveniently available horse and followed Kirk as he went riding out through the countryside of his imagination's creation. After a few impressive tricks on the horse, Kirk pulled his mount to a stop, and Jean-Luc followed suit. Upon a ridge, a woman stopped to look down on them before playfully kicking her horse into a run over the other side of the ridge. She clearly expected them to follow or, at the very least, she expected Kirk to follow.

"Antonia?" Jean-Luc asked.

Kirk frowned and glanced behind him.

"I must have jumped that fifty times. Scared the hell out of me. Except this time. ...Because it isn't real," he said, gesturing toward a ravine that he'd only just recently crossed. "She isn't real either, is she? Nothing here is. ...Nothing here matters."

"It's a vision," Jean-Luc said. "A dream…a shadow, even."

"I'm presumed dead," Kirk said. "And Antonia is long-since gone."

"In my time…" Jean-Luc said, agreeing gently, but letting the words trail. "Perhaps we could find a way for the Nexus to send you back to your time…"

"Nothing much mattered there, either," Kirk said. "Not once I left the bridge. Are you close to retiring?"

"Not planning on it," Jean-Luc said.

"Don't," he said. "As long as you're on the bridge, it matters. What you do matters. You can make a difference."

"That's what I'm trying to do," Jean-Luc said.

"Is your…Beverly…is she pushing you toward retirement?" Kirk asked.

Jean-Luc laughed quietly to himself in response. He shook his head.

"Beverly would never push me toward retirement. She's Starfleet. It's in her blood. I think she'll be in sickbay, or at Starfleet Medical, in some form or fashion until the day she dies." Jean-Luc's stomach reminded him of the reality outside of all of this. "Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing if that may be much sooner than I'd like it to be. Much, much sooner."

"Out there?" Kirk asked. Jean-Luc hummed and nodded. "The Nexus?"

"From what I understand, which is admittedly very little, the Nexus causes disruptions to time and space," Jean-Luc said. "Nothing can be done to stop the Nexus, of course, but it will move along as things naturally do. However, the Enterprise was called to try to stop Soran's destruction of the star and, consequently, his damage to the nearby planets and their populations. In answering the call of duty, the Enterprise was moved close enough to the star that she was grounded. That much I know. A ghost—an echo—someone much more powerful than I ever really imagined, honestly, told me that."

"The Enterprise is grounded on the planet?" Kirk asked.

"A planet that will likely become hostile and inhabitable—if it wasn't destroyed entirely," Jean-Luc said.

"And Beverly?" Kirk asked.

Jean-Luc shook his head.

"I don't want to think about it," he admitted, feeling that there was no need to try to keep secrets when they were both caught up in a world that wasn't even real. "It's possible that she's…and if she isn't…"

"Going back to stop Soran will change all of that," Kirk said. Jean-Luc nodded. Kirk smiled at him. "It might—save the star, the planet, the ship…Beverly."

"That would be my hope," Jean-Luc said. "If you were to help me, you could make a difference again. What you do would matter to the planets surrounding the star, their inhabitants, my crew and their families."

"Beverly…"

"It would matter to her," Jean-Luc said, smiling, in spite of himself, at Kirk's amusement and teasing.

"It would matter to you…if she were to be saved?" Kirk asked.

"Immensely," Jean-Luc admitted.

"What becomes of me, in your century?" Kirk asked.

"That remains to be seen," Jean-Luc said. "You'll be honored as a hero, without a doubt. Perhaps you could receive a commission again. If you asked for a ship…"

"I might be granted one," Kirk mused.

"I would imagine that Starfleet would find it impossible to refuse you," Jean-Luc said. Kirk smiled at him and raised his eyebrows, something that Jean-Luc was already learning indicated that he was about to tease him.

"Would I be invited to Christmas dinner?" He asked. "Aboard the Enterprise? To—admire the Picard clan in its natural habitat?"

"If there were one to admire," Jean-Luc said. "I remind you that my dream was no more a reality than yours."

"Except—we're going back to your reality," Kirk said with a shrug.

"You'll do it?" Jean-Luc asked.

Kirk smiled.

"It might be fun," he said.

"It will be dangerous," Jean-Luc warned.

"That's what makes it fun," Kirk teased, turning his horse and running off. He yelled back at Jean-Luc as he loped away. "Let's go, Picard, Soran won't wait forever." Jean-Luc spurred his own mount, hoping that the advice Guinan had given him—correct enough to get him to Kirk and to gain a hand in handling Soran—would be enough to get them both out of the Nexus and to buy Jean-Luc a second chance to stop Soran and, with any luck, to correct some of his personal errors in addition to his professional ones.

In his mind, though he didn't say it aloud, he hoped, too, that he could offer Kirk some happiness, somehow.