AN: This is in response to one of Kumquatquintet's requests. It's just for fun, and it doesn't belong to any established Triad universe.
It also happens to be my 500th fic, so that's maybe worth mentioning.
I own nothing from Star Trek.
I hope you enjoy! If you do, please do let me know!
111
"Laris—it's freezing," Beverly said. "If you're putting wood on the fire, then put it on and come back to bed."
Laris peeked out the window, pushing the curtains aside enough to see beyond them, but leaving them mostly closed for the moment, so that they could help to keep every last bit of possible cold from seeping into the Château.
"I don't see Jean-Luc," Laris said. "I don't see anyone, for that matter."
"You don't see anyone because it's freezing!" Beverly said. "Jean-Luc is only up to let anyone who was coming in know that there's no reason to even try to come today. Now…come back to bed, before you freeze right where you're standing. Once you get too cold, we'll never get you warm again."
Beverly was teasing Laris, of course. She wasn't at risk of freezing where she stood. It was cold, but it wasn't truly that cold—not inside, at least. Though the Château was usually chilly, even when the weather was not—and especially so to Laris—there were fireplaces in nearly every room. They could keep the cold mostly at bay here and, if worst came to worst, they had plenty of other methods for warming Laris, should she get far too chilled, being Romulan and particularly sensitive to the cold.
"Do you know all the things that ought to get done today?" Laris said. She fixed her robe, wrapping it more tightly around her as though it would make a great deal of difference. "I meant to go into the village to buy some things, and now…"
"We won't starve," Beverly said with a laugh. "Even without fresh produce and bread, we'll make it. Replicated fare won't kill a single Picard."
"Number One must be cold," Laris said.
"Number One is likely already sleeping by the fire in the living room…or the study," Beverly said. "And that's if Jean-Luc was even able to coax him out to do his business at all. He's a very smart dog, Laris. He's probably warm in his bed…like you should be. Come back to bed."
"Jean-Luc will be freezing, if he took Number One out."
"He took a coat, I'm sure," Beverly said. "Jean-Luc!" She called out, trying to make her voice loud enough to carry through the Château. She wasn't sure if it worked, or if her timing was simply perfect, but Jean-Luc appeared not long after, stepping into the bedroom and closing the bedroom door behind him.
He'd gone out to see what the weather looked like, and to try to coax Number One to relieve himself somewhere besides the carpets. As cold as it surely was, though, he still hadn't fully dressed for the weather. He'd obviously gone out in his pajamas, probably covered over with the heavy winter suit that was somewhat easy to throw on for dealing with things around their home and the vineyard.
By now, he had shed that, and he was back in pajamas with nothing more than the housecoat that he wore around before he could be bothered to put clothes on.
"I can't recall the last time I saw that much snow on the ground," Jean-Luc said. "It's really quite remarkable."
"It looks like the whole world is frozen," Laris said, turning from one last glance out the window.
"There are easily several feet of it out there," Jean-Luc said. "And the skies look rather ominous. I wouldn't be surprised if this front leaves us with a few more feet before it passes through entirely. We'll be well and truly snowed in for a few days, at least."
"You've contacted everyone?" Beverly asked, pulling the blankets up around her a bit more, not that it was really necessary. She was warm in the bed. She had moved as little as possible, so as to keep the pocket of warmth that she'd created. She would be much warmer, she thought, if she could coax her husband and wife back to bed to sandwich her in their respective body heat.
"Nobody was going to come in anyway," Jean-Luc said. "There are still quite a few areas around here with plumbing and electricity that's even less modern than ours. From what I can tell, some pipes are frozen over, though the more old-fashioned wells likely work, and there are a great deal of people without power."
"Oh—is it possible they are out of candles?" Laris said. "We have a few to spare, I'm sure."
Beverly tried to suppress her laugh, but it escaped anyway. She heard Laris's teasing in her tone, and she understood it. Jean-Luc was dedicated to keeping the Château as much like it had originally been as possible. As a result, it was very much "behind the times" as far as modern technology went. Beverly, herself, wasn't bothered by this. She'd grown up on Caldos, and the people there had preferred tradition over technology. Laris, too, had adjusted quite easily and quickly to doing nearly everything the old-fashioned way, as she called it. Many parts of Romulus had maintained a more "traditional" manner of doing everything, so she wasn't entirely unaccustomed to the lifestyle.
That didn't mean, though, that it wasn't a source of some teasing among them. They had finally convinced Jean-Luc to put in a few creature comforts, such as replicators and recyclers, and one transport pad that he still preferred them not to use, when walking was an option, but he held firm on a great number of things. One of those was the sometimes less than spectacular plumbing and electricity of the village.
Both women teased that, at the very least, the candles lent a certain ambiance to nearly every occasion when they were made necessary by some issue or another.
"About that," Jean-Luc said. "I'm afraid—there is good news, and there is some slightly more unfortunate news."
"What's wrong?" Laris asked, the slightest hint of panic coming to her tone.
Beverly felt that she was sure of what Jean-Luc was going to say, and she was certain that Laris could predict it, as well. They were, likely, as without water and power as anyone else in the village.
Laris would begin to panic, naturally, if the temperature were to drop too low. Extreme cold was very difficult on Vulcanoid bodies and, thanks to their shared heritage, Romulans were no exception to that rule. In extreme cases, it could be fatal.
The temperature wasn't dropping that low and, even if it somehow did, Beverly and Jean-Luc would do whatever was necessary to help keep their wife from freezing to death. Laris knew that, and Beverly knew that she knew that. However, Beverly also understood that anxiety wasn't always entirely rational.
As if to soothe herself a bit, Laris added a piece of wood to the fire that was crackling in their bedroom fireplace. Then, she hugged herself, as though just thinking about her impending death as something of a Romulan popsicle was making her cold.
"Laris—come back to bed," Beverly offered. Laris didn't immediately respond.
"We have water," Jean-Luc said. "However, we're quite without main power. My Padd was fully charged, thankfully, and it seems that the networks are still up from the Paris tower, but…well…were it not for the morning sun, we'd be quite literally in the dark."
"No power?" Laris said, almost sounding incredulous and as though this weren't something that happened with some regularity. She looked from Jean-Luc to Beverly. "No power?"
"I'm afraid not," Jean-Luc said. "There's no real problem, however," he added quickly, perhaps realizing that she might need a touch of reassurance. "I'm sure they'll have things cleared and running soon. For now, we do have plenty of candles and a great deal of wood ready for the fires." He smiled at her and crossed to where she was, pulling her into his arms. "Fear not—we have never lost a Romulan to the cold in La Barre."
"Come back to bed," Beverly offered again. "It's warm under the blankets. You'll be sweating in no time."
Laris was a bit too wide-eyed and a touch wild-eyed, even, for Beverly's preferences. She knew that Jean-Luc saw it, too. The most important thing wasn't warming her up at the moment, because it was warm enough in the Château that, at most, she was only slightly chilled—and even that was unlikely with her proximity to the fire. The most important thing was simply getting her to calm a bit and understand that all would be well.
Beverly had never actually seen a Romulan have a panic attack, but given Laris's natural physical strength, she wasn't sure it was something she wanted to experience, especially if it could be easily avoided.
Jean-Luc must have sensed the same thing that Beverly sensed, because he caught the upper part of Laris's arms in his hands and squeezed them to ground her.
"Why don't you go and lie down for a while with Beverly?" Jean-Luc offered.
"You're going to be cold," Laris said. "We all are. Beverly—if you're cold…that might…hurt the baby."
Beverly was, in a turn of events that had surprised all of them, expecting a little girl to bless their family. The little one she carried was only at about twenty weeks of gestation, but the pregnancy was going especially well, despite Beverly's advanced age and, likely, thanks to the fact that her family had always enjoyed particularly good health and longevity when outside influences didn't end their lives prematurely.
Beverly smiled at Laris.
"Laris—I'm not cold. The baby is fine. Besides, my body is designed to do what's best for the baby. It'll keep her warm."
"Even at the cost of your health," Laris said, her voice carrying clear concern. "I ought to go and try to prepare something for breakfast. Warm food—that's all that's going to keep everyone warm enough today. I can see what we have in the pantry, but I'm sure there's enough for a good meal. Something warm and hearty to feed her and keep her warm."
"There's plenty of food, Laris," Jean-Luc said.
"And there's plenty of time for breakfast later," Beverly said. "Come back to bed. I think our main focus right now should be retaining body heat and sharing what we have. This blanket is perfect for it. Come try it out with me."
Jean-Luc made a face at her, and she smiled and raised her eyebrows back at him, silently communicating her thoughts that a day spent in bed with her partners would be the best kind of day that she could imagine—especially when there was precious little else that they could really be expected to accomplish.
Once upon a time, Beverly had dreamed of being married to Jean-Luc. He'd become such a close friend when she was married to Jack, that she'd found it very easy for her imagination to run away with her—especially after she'd lost Jack. For some time, she'd told herself that her feelings were inappropriate, and so she'd pushed them back. They would never be entirely denied, though, and they'd come back to the front of her mind when she'd begun working aboard the Enterprise.
From there, things had always been complicated. That might have been the easiest way to explain it all, even if it would never be the most thorough explanation. Jean-Luc had been married to his job. He'd been committed to the stars, and he'd practically been allergic to any other kind of commitment. They'd come crashing together a few times, pretending that they would make things last, only to have one insecurity or another tear them apart.
The last time she'd left, she'd left carrying their son with her, and she'd kept him hidden from Jean-Luc until he was an adult. She'd wanted to protect him but, in the end, she'd had to admit that she couldn't do that alone.
Perhaps, she wasn't supposed to be so determined to do things alone.
She certainly wasn't alone, now, and she truly felt like she had a whole new lease on life. She had a chance at finally, truly enjoying the kind of life she'd once dreamed of having—a dream she'd picked up more than once and painfully let go of a few times in her life.
She had never imagined herself marrying into a polyamorous marriage—a Romulan trust bond, to be exact—but it had been one of the greatest things to ever happen to her. She was happy on a level that she wouldn't have imagined possible before.
Coming back into Jean-Luc's life had meant finding out that Laris was there—Laris who was willing to leave in order to make room for the love that she knew had lived between Beverly and Jean-Luc for so long. It was a love that had never seemed to be able to stay off the ground, always crashing for one reason or another. Sometimes, Beverly thought that Laris might have simply been the missing ingredient to their life. Ironically enough, perhaps, it was her extra dose of grounding that seemed to help everything just work so much better than it ever had before.
And, now, Beverly had two loves to keep her warm—literally and metaphorically. And, as a special surprise to all of them, she was expecting a baby girl—the anticipation of which warmed all of their hearts in so many precious ways.
"The baby needs to eat," Laris said. "You need nourishment."
"You're right, I do," Beverly agreed. "But what if we just had a sandwich right now?"
"There's no bread," Laris said. "I was supposed to go into the village last night, and I foolishly thought this morning would be possible…"
"Oh," Beverly said, trying to do her best to look disappointed and maybe even a little devastated.
"I'm sorry…oh…I'm sure when the sun's out, it wouldn't be that bad to walk to the village," Laris said. "The bakery might be open by then, and I'm sure it's not that bad out. Or—I could probably bake some bread over the fire…something that's at least sufficient."
"No," Beverly said. "It's fine. If you set out for the village, I couldn't stand being here, while you were gone, imagining that you were…lost somewhere in a snowdrift."
"I don't believe the snow is quite so deep," Jean-Luc offered with a laugh.
"I guess you'll just—have to make it up to me," Beverly said. She patted the bed. "Come back to bed. We'll just have to make me a sandwich this way."
Laris laughed, then, realizing that Beverly was teasing her, and had been teasing her all along. She looked a little conflicted, but she did come toward the bed, shaking off her robe as she came, and when Beverly lifted the cover and grabbed her arm to tug her under, she came willingly. Beverly wrapped around her, wrapping both of them in the warmth under the blanket. She hummed in pleasure as Laris finally relaxed and returned the embrace in the way she wanted.
"I do appreciate that you were willing to brave the snow for me," Beverly teased, squeezing Laris. "Jean-Luc…" Beverly added.
He laughed and circled around the bed.
"I'm already coming," he said.
"Mmmm…not right now," Beverly teased. "But maybe later?"
Her joke got a bit of laughter out of both of her partners as they did exactly what she'd hoped and made something of a sandwich out of her. She sighed and closed her eyes.
"Perhaps, a little later, we can go out and see the snow. The vineyard is truly beautiful," Jean-Luc said.
"I'd like that," Beverly said.
"I think I'll stay inside, if you don't mind," Laris offered. "I don't really relish the idea of freezing to death."
"Don't worry," Beverly said. "We'll bundle you up…and we'll warm you back up when we get you back inside, but the baby wants to see you make a snow angel, and the baby gets what she wants."
"Oh—you're so damned sure of yourself, are you?" Laris challenged.
Of course, there was no real challenge in her voice, and Beverly enjoyed the playful challenges.
"You got back in bed, didn't you?" Beverly responded, laughing quietly as she settled into their little nest for a winter's nap.