Tom

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I brace for a fight when I see B'Elanna's name on the incoming call. She'd stopped sniping when my support payments increased. But the goodwill disappeared when I formally asked for joint custody.

To my surprise, she's rather conciliatory. "We need to make one of those 'adjustments' to the agreement. You need to take Miral for a while," she says softly.

This is much better than I expected. Legally, we each have Miri for a month at a time. Informally, we somehow agreed to give each other a bit of leeway where postings are concerned.

"Well, sure. You get reassigned?"

"The Lumina," she says with annoyance that I don't take personally. "We'll be patrolling outside the Neutral Zone. Apparently it's important enough that Admiral Aliev is willing to suspend the engine tests."

My head is spinning when I get off the vid; we've got a lot to do. So I'm a bit annoyed when it chimes again. This time, it's Harry.

"Hey, Tom, looks like my Christmas visit will have to be earlier. I've been reassigned, and we'll be out until early March," he says apologetically.

"Yeah? Don't tell me: You're going to the Lumina."

He looks at me strangely. "How did you know that?"

"I just talked to B'Elanna; she's been reassigned to the Lumina. Looks like you two will spend Christmas together."

"Huh ... guess I'd better take Miral's present with me."

I grin at him. "Nope, better bring it here. Mademoiselle Paris is spending Christmas with me and Kathryn."

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Kathryn

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I'm delighted to hear that we'll have Miral for a while and that Harry can still visit. I'm not so happy to hear that he and B'Elanna will be on the Lumina. Nothing against the ship: It's one of the new Hawking class of advanced science vessels, and Harry will love the astrometrics setup.

It's the assignment: Lumina is one of three ships that will patrol along the Neutral Zone, making specialized — and classified — scans of the Romulan star system. In fact, I briefed Captain Simnashi this morning.

Neutral Zone patrols always carry risk, but now they're even more dangerous. Recent reports cite a great deal of activity on the Romulan side, which we expected. But are their scientists scanning and calculating, or planning a risky effort to delay — or, God help us — try to stop the supernova?

Frankly, we hope it's not the latter: There are theories on how to stop a supernova, but any miscalculation could prematurely blow the sector to hell. So, as a precaution, 'Fleet and Federation facilities near the border are quietly reducing their personnel.

Unfortunately, I can't voice those fears. "So when do we get Miral?" I ask instead.

"B'Elanna says December 15th," he replies. "Her dad and stepmom want to have a Christmas-birthday thing."

Ouch. "I'll be in Paris, probably not back until the next day," I say gently. "We have to deliver a report. And I should warn you that the first two weeks of December will be really hectic for me."

He just shrugs. "We could stay in San Francisco for a day or two; Mom will want to do something for her birthday."

I nod. "I'll let Mom know. I suspect she'll want to do a birthday cake, too." I smile, mostly in an effort to distract Tom. "Between her birthday and the holidays, Miral is going to find life to be really dull come January."

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Paris is always lovely at night; it is, after all, the City of Light. But tonight, a snow is falling in the park across from my hotel, and the holiday decorations certainly give the streets an extra bit of cheer.

Too bad that it's all lost on me right now.

We finished presenting our preliminary report today. My team, well, it was damned amazing. Despite the short notice and the flood of data from Vulcan, Andoria. and Kronos, they produced a comprehensive, if stark, overview of the Romulan situation. And, yes, the Klingons' data did prove to be the most useful.

We did good, but the whole thing has left me rather melancholy.

I enjoy my job, and I'm grateful that Owen persuaded me to wait for it. But Reseil, Scott, and I just spent the last day and a half calmly explaining quads of data and statistics as politicians, scientists, and fellow officers nodded along in agreement.

And though we touched on subjects like damage and evacuations, we all ignored the elephant in the room: We've mapped the end of the world for Romulus and the surrounding planets. We've drawn the parameters of an event that will force more than a billion people to scatter across the galaxy.

And that's the best-case scenario. If Picard's and Clancy's grim looks today are any indication, the reality will be much, much worse.

I drain my glass and consider a refill, but decide that nothing good will come of it. Besides, I really could use a decent night's sleep. Come morning, I'll be leaving for San Francisco, where my two favorite people are waiting for me. And by this time tomorrow, we'll all be warm and safe at home.

We have a Christmas tree to decorate, I'm told. And someone wants to show me all the decorations she helped pick out ...

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Tom

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Christmas evening in Indiana and the hubbub is over for another year. I'm helping Gretchen with the dishes. It's the least I can do, considering she's welcomed me and Miral, not to mention Tiger.

The little scamp followed us home from the studio one night — apparently, he prefers a warm apartment to a building with minimal heat. And Miral was quite vocal about not leaving him at the apartment, even with a sitter.

"Miral is growing up on us," Gretchen remarks as I glance back into the living room. Miri's sitting on the floor with Nico, trying to puzzle out the metal building set he made for her.

"She likes to remind me that she's a big girl," I say. "We'll start her in daycare after the holidays. She misses being around other kids, and Kathryn and I have to go back to work."

"Looks like she's adjusting pretty well," she remarks.

"So far, it's been great. I thought being back on Earth would scare her, but she's fascinated by everything. She wouldn't stop talking when we took her to New Manhattan. She wanted to know about the holiday lights, the ferry ride, buildings, bridges …" I chuckle. "But Father Christmas was a bust. She didn't want anything to do with him."

Gretchen laughs. "Phoebe wouldn't go near him at that age. Katie would talk to him, but only if Ed held her hand."

She stops and takes another look into the living room. "If you don't mind my asking," she says softly, "everything all right with you and Katie? She seems distracted."

"We're fine … I think it's this research group she's heading. She and Dad looked pretty grim when they beamed in from Paris. And they spent a couple hours in his office talking about something. Not that she'll tell me."

Gretchen just nods again. "That comes with the uniform, and it gets worse as they go up the ranks and start dealing with classified material. Talk to your mom about that.

"But Katie is also a lot like Ed. He could never let go of whatever project he was working on. I'd have to nudge him back to us on occasion." She smiles wryly. "Looks like you may have to do the same."

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