"So, did you hear the news?"

I look around in confusion, "Hope, is this the part where you tell me that I'm having quadruplets?"

"No," she shakes her head with a laugh, "the news about Voyager."

My heart sinks. Kathryn. "No. What happened?"

"You seriously haven't heard?"

"Hope!" She's exasperating sometimes!

"They made it back to the Alpha Quadrant."

My heart stops. "What?"

"Bev, do you live in a cave?"

"No, no. We've just been distracted recently… We haven't been paying attention to Federation news. When did it happen?"

"The Headlines came in yesterday. Everyone was shocked that they made it over, what like 60,000 light years?"

"So, how did it happen?" This should be good.

"Well remember the Pathfinder project that was started a while back?"

"Yes, one of the Enterprise's former crewmembers, Reg Barclay, was the one who set it up."

"Yes well your man Reg is somewhat of a miracle worker. Apparently, he was able to locate conditions in the Delta Quadrant that were favourable to opening a spatial flexure that could be superimposed over a transient wormhole forming near Voyager's location at the time of the data stream. He was able to work with the crew of Voyager over the time span of a few days to give them the coordinates and somehow they were able to get through!"

"Wow! Hope, that's amazing! I'm so happy for Kathryn and her crew. It must be such a relief to be home!"

"I'll say. So, what time does your case start this afternoon at County?"

"Uh, Betsey just told me that my last patient is at noon so right after I see Mary Kinlan, I'll go."

"What's the case?"

"Well, now that you mention it… it's something I'd like to talk to you about."

"Mmm, go ahead," she nods and gestures as she reclines in the chair, taking a bite of her yoghurt.

"Well," I plop down myself, "It's an interesting case. She's a young Bolian girl who's having transient oesophageal spasm. I've diagnosed her with a prolapsed transverse sphincter and in order to do the repair, I'll have to open her up because I can't do it with a probe. But, I've never done this procedure on a Bolian that was so young. And as you know, Bolians at 15 years of age and younger have poor regenerative capacity, so that leaves me with two options once I get her into the OR-"

"Are you-? Excuse me," she apologises.

"No, no," I gesture. "Go ahead."

"Are you thinking about going proximally or distally to the medial xiphasternus?"

"Well, that's what I wanted your opinion on. If I go proximally I'll-"

"Risk tearing the medial cartilage."

"Right, but if I go distally –"

She finishes, "you might nick the Melphisian Artery."

"Exactly. So with this procedure I feel like I'm between a rock and a hard place!"

Hope sits back and thinks for a moment, "Ok, how about this: don't take either approach."

I raise my eyebrow in question. "Go on."

"When you get her into the OR make a lateral cut right over the site instead of going around it. Right away you'll see that thin band of cartilage that partially covers the cardia of the stomach. Remember, we learned somewhere that it's degenerate and Bolians can easily regenerate cartilage. So, cut through that and you'll be right at the sphincter. You'll still have to cut through transversalis abdominosus, but it should heal right up with extended exposure to the dermal regenerator."

She's brilliant. "Hope," I smile. "You are a genius."

/

"Hi Mom!" I hear his voice coming from the living room as I peek my head in. I smile at the sight before me: Wes is sitting on the floor playing blocks with Saoirse.

"Hi, Wes." I kiss his head and move to greet the little red-headed bundle on the floor, "Hi, Kitten. What are you doing?"

"We've been playing blocks for hours, haven't we Kitten?" She just looks at us with big wide eyes, giggles, and claps her hands.

"Is Jean Luc home?" I kiss his head again.

As if in answer to my question, "Beverly?" My, he looks handsome!

"Did you go for a run?" It's rhetorical as he's in athletics shorts and a T-shirt soaked in sweat.

"I was just about to jump in the shower, join me?"

"GUYS!" We both start laughing as Wesley's hands theatrically cover Saoirse's ears. "You're scandalizing the children!"

"Mmm.." I reply dramatically. "I've already had a shower today… I'll follow you up though." I wink at him. He knows.

/

"So," I ask over my glass. "Did you hear about Voyager?"

"Yes!" I was going to bring it up earlier Jean Luc responds, taking a serving of the salad.

"I wish I was still at the Academy so I could have seen it!"

I reach over and grab Wes' hand, "I'm sorry you weren't there to see it."

He smiles to reassure me. "It's ok, Mom."

"Jean Luc," Wes begins. "When are we headed to Pomona for the wedding?"

"Well I was thinking we'd leave this Saturday. It's going to be a hellish drive, but I think that if all 3 of us rotate driving, it'll be more manageable."

"How many hours is it again?"

"It's going to be 8 if we don't have traffic and the motorway is quiet."

I roll my eyes. It'll be good to see Will and Deanna get married, but I'm not looking forward to driving for 8 hours there and back with an 1 year old in the car. But then I smile, "Jean Luc, are you looking forward to reuniting with Lwaxana Troi?"

He groans and puts his head in his hands, making Wes and I giggle. "Absolutely not."