AN: Here we are, another piece to this one.
I hope that you enjoy! Please don't forget to let me know what you think!
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Jean-Luc briefly wondered if the medicine that Beverly took via hypospray would relieve his own stomach discomfort.
Robert's initial meeting of Beverly wasn't abrasive. It wasn't anything, really. In fact, it was almost as though he had neither heard Jean-Luc's introduction of Beverly as his wife, noticed her condition, or even recognized her presence there.
Robert's only response, initially, had been to hum at her—just to hum. It was the same kind of response that he might have made to a bit of news brought from the village that didn't concern him in the least. It was only at Marie's scolding—gentle, but effective—that Robert grumbled a welcome to Beverly and told her to make herself at home.
Jean-Luc wanted to say something, but a different kind of look from his own wife warned him off of doing so.
Instead, he'd taken his seat at the head of the table, opposite Robert, and turned his attention to praising the lunch that Marie placed before them on the table. Robert busied himself with filling wine glasses and putting them in front of everyone.
"Oh—no, thank you," Beverly said, when Robert placed the glass in front of her. Robert looked at her like she'd insulted him. If the expression moved Beverly in the least, she showed no signs of it. She smiled softly. "I'm expecting," she said, without even the slightest indication that he should already know that. "I'm abstaining from alcohol until after the baby comes. I'm sure you understand."
"Of course, he understands," Marie intervened.
"I understand that it's a glass of wine with a meal," Robert said.
"Robert…" Marie said. It was enough to say what needed to be said, apparently. Robert made something of a grumbling sound, but he took the glass away and put it in front of Marie's plate before continuing around the table. Marie filled water glasses for anyone who would also wish to have water, and she waved away Beverly's third offer to help as she put bread down in the center of the table and took her seat beside Beverly.
Robert sat across from Jean-Luc.
"Marie—this looks absolutely amazing," Beverly offered.
"You helped," Marie said.
The lunch was light fare, and everything was fresh. There was no replicated food in this particular Picard household—the existence of multiple Picard households being a concept with which Jean-Luc was struggling to become familiar since, technically, wherever he and Beverly called home was also a Picard household—and he was happy to see that Beverly's praise of the food didn't seem at all artificial.
Marie heaped Beverly's plate with food, and Beverly didn't argue with her or protest the portions she'd been given.
"Hardly," Beverly said, around a mouthful of food. She paused for a facial expression that clearly showed her approval of the lunch she'd been served. Marie beamed just to see her expression. "I don't think chopping the ingredients for the salad really counts as meal preparation."
"It's more help than I usually have," Marie said with a laugh. She glanced at Robert, teasing him with a look. Jean-Luc noticed that his brother's usual sour expression softened slightly before returning to his regular scowl.
"Father—did you know that I'll have a cousin?" René offered, pleased with the concept of such a thing.
"Actually," Jean-Luc said, smiling at the boy, "you already have a cousin."
René's eyes widened with such a revelation.
"I do?" He asked.
"Indeed," Jean-Luc said. "Wesley. Beverly already has a son. He serves aboard the Enterprise, for now, and he'll go to the Academy when he's ready. It seems I'm to be surrounded by promising young members of Starfleet."
René beamed at the praise and puffed his chest out slightly.
"Can I serve on the Enterprise?" He asked.
"You may very well, someday," Jean-Luc offered. "Or, you may find that you're better suited to a different vessel. Either way, I'm sure that you'll serve somewhere."
"I'm going to be a starship captain, Niece," René said, smiling at Beverly. "Did you know that?"
"Well, I do now," Beverly said. "Maybe it could be a family affair. You could serve with some of your cousins."
"You have a son?" Robert asked, interrupting the conversation. Beverly smiled at him and nodded.
"Wesley," she said, even though Jean-Luc had already informed the table of the existence of her son and of his name.
"Where is he?" Marie asked, seeming determined to intercept before Robert could say anything of which she might disapprove. "Why didn't he come?"
"Wesley felt a strong need to visit his great-grandmother on the Caldos colony," Jean-Luc said. "We invited him to come with us, of course, but he refused. We thought it best not to require him to spend his R and R in any particular way."
"He's been corresponding with someone," Beverly said. Her cheeks reddened slightly. "I think there might be someone at the colony that Wesley would like to see—possibly someone that's not my Nana."
"Is he old enough for such interests and pursuits?" Marie asked, smiling at Beverly. Beverly raised her eyebrows and nodded at Marie.
"Part of me doesn't want to admit it," Beverly said. "Partially, of course, because that makes me think about how old I'm getting, if my son might have certain budding romantic interests. But the other reason is simply because it's almost impossible to imagine that my son has grown up enough for such things. Sometimes I still feel like he can't possibly be much more than a baby."
"He's a great deal older than a baby, Beverly," Jean-Luc teased. Beverly laughed quietly in response.
"I know," she said.
"But a mother's heart doesn't always want to face that," Marie said. "They grow so quickly."
"And now you'll have another son," Robert said.
Jean-Luc bristled at Robert's tone more than anything. He picked up his wine glass and drank from it, reminding himself that Beverly didn't want him to make any kind of show about anything.
Jean-Luc loved his brother, but Robert could be infuriating. He could make anything sound caustic and accusatory. Jean-Luc was willing to admit that he was probably quick to respond negatively to Robert, and that he likely expected the worst of him simply from past experience, but that didn't stop him from feeling annoyed in his brother's presence.
"A daughter, actually," Beverly said.
"A little girl?" Marie asked. Her question was clearly rhetorical, but Beverly hummed in the affirmative. Marie's smile was contagious, and Beverly grinned in response. "Oh! That's so exciting! A little girl!"
"Not a son," Robert mused.
"Of course," Beverly said, "we haven't ruled out the possibility of one or…or even two more children. It's not impossible to imagine that we might have a son."
"But little girls are so nice, too!" Marie said.
"My cousin's a little girl?" René asked.
"She is," Beverly said, giving René her full attention. She pushed back from the table slightly. "She's kicking—would you like to feel her?"
René eyed her suspiciously, and Jean-Luc swallowed down his amusement with a sip of wine. He thought René's expression answered the question clearly enough. Beverly obviously thought so, too, because she laughed.
"Well, I do," Marie said, not bothering to mask any enthusiasm. Beverly helped her, and Marie was, admittedly, much faster at finding the movements of the baby than Jean-Luc was. Of course, maybe that was simply because the baby's movements were finally somewhat easily detectable with Beverly's guidance.
René looked disappointed, and he rested his head on his hand. Jean-Luc reached over and bumped his arm, causing his head to drop somewhat dramatically before he turned to Jean-Luc and the pout dissolved into a smile.
"What's the matter, Uncle?" Jean-Luc asked. "Is your little cousin such a disappointment to you?"
René made a face and shrugged.
"It's just—I thought I'd have a cousin I could play with," René said.
"You can play with girls, too, you know, just the same as you play with boys," Jean-Luc offered.
"It's not the same," René offered.
"No," Jean-Luc agreed. "No—it's not the same. Not entirely."
"I think I'd just rather my other cousin come to play," René said. "Then, we can talk about starships and exploration."
"Certainly, that will be exciting," Jean-Luc said. "And—perhaps, Wesley would even like to visit the family when he next has leave…"
"He'll be more than welcome to stay whenever he might like," Marie offered. "Our home is his home." Jean-Luc offered her a smile and a quick nod as thanks. He turned his attention back to René.
"Maybe you could even come aboard the Enterprise to visit us, when you next have school holidays," Jean-Luc said. "It would be no problem to have a shuttle bring you aboard."
"Can I?" René asked immediately and with enough enthusiasm that he bumped the table and Jean-Luc and Robert both steadied it quickly. "Sorry. I'm sorry," René apologized. "But—can I? I have holidays in just a little while…"
"That would be a lot of work on Beverly," Marie said.
"I wouldn't mind it at all," Beverly said quickly. "We'd love to have René visit!"
"Of course, you both would be welcome, too," Jean-Luc said. "But I know that Robert wouldn't want to leave his vines for even the week of the autumn holidays."
"There are responsibilities that can't be dropped on a whim," Robert said.
"If Robert could spare you for a short vacation," Beverly said to Marie, "you could accompany René."
"I wouldn't want to be a burden," Marie said.
"We have guest quarters," Beverly insisted. "And—I haven't prepared for a baby in so long that I could use a hand figuring out what I need. Just trying to remember everything, when I feel like I'm constantly forgetting everything, is overwhelming."
"I remember those days," Marie said with a laugh. "And you've only just begun, really…you have a way to go before she comes."
"You could help me start to organize things," Beverly insisted. "It would really help me feel more prepared for her."
"I haven't been on holiday since…" Marie started.
Robert cleared his throat at the end of the table.
"The grapes don't offer holidays for people to go off galivanting among the stars," Robert said. "But…Marie…if you would like to take René, when he has his next school holidays, to visit my brother and his wife, then…"
"I wouldn't want to leave you here to tend everything alone," Marie said, clearly appreciative that Robert even offered.
"I believe I could fend for myself," he said. "Besides—perhaps it would quell René's appetite for the stars to see that life on a starship is not as glamorous as he imagines it to be."
"It may excite him more," Marie offered.
"Please—please…" René begged, clearly unable to figure out exactly what argument might win him that which he so desperately desired. He was practically crawling up out of his seat. It was clear to Jean-Luc that the boy was struggling to stay seated against every desire within him.
"At the very least," Jean-Luc offered, René would be more informed about the decisions that he makes regarding his future."
"Why is everyone looking at me?" Robert asked. "I've already given my blessing. I'll enjoy the peace and quiet for a while, I'm sure."
This time, nobody took Robert's brusque manner of speaking too personally. Everyone seemed equally pleased over the potential visit to the Enterprise. Jean-Luc felt his pulse pick up slightly as he imagined his nephew and his sister-in-law visiting him aboard his ship. He had tried to reconcile with his brother—putting petty past differences and childhood feuds behind them—but every leopard was slow to change his spots, if they ever changed at all. Jean-Luc included himself in that metaphor, along with his brother.
He was getting better about maintaining contact with them, and he promised each time they talked to do better, but this was a big step. Inviting his family aboard his ship to spend time as guests—which he was allowed to do on a family ship—seemed a much larger step than any he'd taken before.
It was exciting, but it was also a little frightening. Jean-Luc recognized that a shift was taking place inside him, a shift that he'd suspected would happen since first he heard about the unexpected reminder of a minor indiscretion between Beverly and himself, but it still shook him slightly to see the unmistakable evidence of that shift.
Jean-Luc Picard—self-sworn bachelor and aggressively-independent soul—was slowly becoming a family man in every single connotation of the word.
He couldn't help but smile to himself, at an amusement of which only he was aware, when he reached out to steady and ground himself, finding himself a little overwhelmed, and touched Beverly's leg under the table. Finding her, he found comfort, and she squeezed his hand in hers without drawing attention to the touch with anything more than a quick smile in his direction and the almost imperceptible wink of an eye.
By all the gods and prophets, how he did love this woman.
"Do you live on the Enterprise because you're married to my nephew?" René asked Beverly, beaming so much over his future trip that he could barely be bothered to finish his lunch.
She smiled at him and laughed to herself.
"I live on the Enterprise because I'm an officer on the Enterprise," Beverly said.
René furrowed his brow at her.
"Really?" He asked.
"I wouldn't lie to you," Beverly assured him.
"But you're a girl…" René said.
"A woman, perhaps, is more fitting a description," Jean-Luc said, laughing to himself. "Robert—what kind of backward perspective is your son internalizing?"
He saw the disapproving look from Marie. Robert wanted a traditional home and, for him, that meant also having a very traditional family with a wife who followed what he considered a traditional role. He was lucky that, in Marie, he found a woman willing to humor him.
"Don't you dare say anything about a woman's place," Marie warned Robert before he even spoke.
"Women can do whatever it is that suits them," Robert said. "It's not my fault if René has never known any Starfleet officers who happened to be women. He's never been explicitly told they can't be, if that's what you're thinking."
"Well—women can absolutely be Starfleet officers," Jean-Luc said to his nephew, "if you didn't know that. And Beverly is one of the greatest physicians in Starfleet. I am lucky to have her as my Chief Medical Officer."
"And wife," René said, not entirely making it clear whether her was simply making a statement or asking a question. Jean-Luc found Beverly's hand again and, this time, he lifted it to the table and held it, working it in his own, so that René—and anyone else who might need it—could see the small show of affection between them.
"That goes without saying," Jean-Luc assured René. Beverly smiled at him.
"But—you aren't a starship captain," René said, matter-of-factly and not at all accusatorily.
"No," Beverly said. "I'm not."
"But she could be," Jean-Luc said. "She holds the rank of commander, René, and if she wanted? She could seek a commission that would give her command of a ship. Beverly isn't a captain because she chooses not to be one. She prefers to spend her talent and her efforts as a doctor, saving lives among the members of many different species."
René's eyes lit up. A world of respect that he hadn't felt before, mostly from lack of exposure to the great many possibilities the world held, opened up to him. Even if his own dreams of being a starship captain hadn't faded any, he suddenly realized that there were a great many other worthwhile positions in Starfleet—and he was among family who served in more than one of those roles.
"You'll show me some of that when I'm aboard the Enterprise?" René asked Beverly.
"Now—you mustn't insist on being underfoot," Marie warned, "or we won't be invited back."
Beverly laughed.
"I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunity for you to see everything on Enterprise. Sickbay included. And I'm sure you'll be invited back—assuming, of course, that we could be invited back here?"
Marie reached over and clasped Beverly's shoulder.
"You'll come for the holidays," she said. "I won't hear no for an answer. Jean-Luc has come up with a reason to refuse every year—this year? We'll have a family Christmas. A real one. It'll be wonderful! And your son will come, too. Wesley."
"We might be required to go to the Caldos colony for Christmas," Jean-Luc said. "Beverly's grandmother is getting older, and she's there alone. She might rather like the company of her family during the holidays."
"Then, you'll bring her here," Marie said. "The more, the merrier! Jean-Luc—Beverly's my sister and her family is ours. That's all there is to it."
Across the table, Jean-Luc thought that the scowl on his brother's face had softened. Maybe, in light of plans that seemed unexpectedly exciting, Jean-Luc was simply ready to forgive his brother for some of the parts of himself that, at this age, may never fully change. Almost as though he could read his mind, and as though he wished to make some sort of gesture of peace, Robert rose and refilled his own glass and Jean-Luc's glass with a bit more wine. As their wives chattered about how they might spend the afternoon, Jean-Luc raised his glass in a silent toast to his brother. Robert responded in kind.
The fluttering in Jean-Luc's body settled a little, replaced by a growing excitement that felt less anxious and more welcomed.
Jean-Luc Picard was becoming, little-by-little, and in every sense of the words, a family man, and he was already enjoying it a great deal more than he ever would have imagined he might.