AN: Here we are, another chapter to this one!
I hope you enjoy! If you do, please do consider leaving a comment to let me know!
111
Under Beverly's suggestion, she and Jean-Luc stripped a great many blankets and other such linens from the accessible quarters on the ship. She had no idea how cold the planet would get, or really just how quickly it would descend into whatever frigid state was coming, but she knew that they would need warmth. She also wasn't sure if they might expect ice or snow—or, even, something that they had never encountered before. If they did, they might not be able to reach the ship for some time. She had explained her thoughts to Jean-Luc, so that they could begin preparing for any harsh weather that might be coming. Jean-Luc hadn't questioned her choice at all. He hadn't so much as furrowed a brow in question. He'd simply helped her collect together what she considered a suitable stack of blankets, along with towels and other linens, from the ship.
They designated an area that they weren't using for storage, and they began to place other items there that they feared they would need, just in case they weren't able to access the ship due to weather.
"It's a clear enough path to the water," Jean-Luc mused one afternoon as they carried things back from the ship. "I think we'll be able to reach it, even if the weather gets bad."
Beverly stopped, needing to shift the bag she was carrying. Jean-Luc stopped when he noticed her slowing.
"Do you need help?" He asked.
She laughed at his offer.
"With what hand would you help me?" She teased.
"We could make more trips," Jean-Luc offered.
"We'll already have to make more trips," Beverly said. "If we continue to lessen our loads and increase the number of trips we intend to make, we're likely to find ourselves stranded in the house before we're finished with all of our trips."
She shifted her bag, found a comfortable position to carry it while she continued, and started her steps forward once more. Jean-Luc joined her, matching her steps almost perfectly.
"While I am certainly in favor of collecting everything that may be useful, in anticipation of what may be a difficult winter of unknown length, I do believe that we have enough to survive, if we should find ourselves stranded in our home until we're able to come up with a plan of how to leave it," Jean-Luc said. "We may be lacking a few comforts, here or there, but I believe we would at least be able to live."
"You may be right," Beverly ceded. "However, I would rather have those creature comforts, if they're available to us."
"May I ask—what's in the bag?" Jean-Luc asked.
They had split up when they'd gathered their supplies. It was faster if they were both working. By now, they knew which areas of the ship were accessible, which were entirely inaccessible, and which required a decent amount of caution. If either of them decided it was necessary, for any reason, to enter one of the locations that required a bit more care, they went together. They were both aware that accidents could—and did—happen. There could easily be falls or even cave-ins. Together, at least, they wouldn't be left wondering what had happened to other.
Even if they died, they had finally agreed that they would rather die together. Even though each of them had, the very first time they'd discussed the practice, declared that the other should continue to live if at all possible, the truth of the matter was that neither of them was particularly keen on the idea of being left behind, entirely alone.
Of course, every now and again, the thought did cross Beverly's mind that she wouldn't be entirely alone—but she wasn't ready, just yet, to bring that up to Jean-Luc, and she wasn't ready to discuss how that might very well change some of their decisions surrounding some practices that they'd put in place during the earliest parts of their time on the planet.
If the two of them were accessing safe parts of the ship, they agreed that it was permissible for them to split up and, at times, they deemed it acceptable to make the journey to the ship alone. During those times, they simply paid close attention to the passage of time, making sure to check with each other whenever it seemed as though too much time had passed.
"Clothes," Beverly said.
"Didn't you bring a rather large bag of clothing back to the house yesterday?" Jean-Luc asked.
"Mmmhmmm," Beverly hummed. "And I'll bring another tomorrow."
Jean-Luc laughed.
"Forgive me, but…is there any particular reason that we require such large quantities of clothing?" Jean-Luc asked.
Beverly might have been offended, if she felt that he was challenging or mocking her decision. She didn't sense that at all, though. What she did sense was simply that he was curious.
Jean-Luc was, in many ways, a brilliant man. Beverly looked up to him as a captain. He was very good at working under immense pressure, and he could make decisions quickly and firmly. He was also strong, in more ways than one, and he was capable of making the kinds of calls that some people simply couldn't. All these things were things that set him apart from so many others that might have, otherwise, been competition for his position as captain of the flagship.
In other ways, Jean-Luc was a typical man, and she sometimes thought that he was lucky that she'd come with him. Otherwise, she might have wondered how he'd have the sense to survive. Another part of her, of course, recognized that, since she was with him, it was entirely likely that he simply wasn't really using everything that he knew about survival. He was content to let her figure things out and present problems to him if she needed assistance. It was easy for him to simply do what he was asked to do, without having to think too much about it.
"We were all accustomed to living aboard the ship," Beverly said. "Outside of shore leave, or the occasional away mission, we remained aboard the ship. If we went on an away mission, or we required any kind of specific clothing for away missions—or even for holodeck programs—we tended to replicate just what we needed, in the instance that it was needed, Jean-Luc. The Enterprise was a great deal more climate controlled than our planet. And, while we're comfortable now, we know that nights are quite cold. If we were moving around during the night, we would be half-freezing in the clothes we have now."
"But we have blankets," Jean-Luc said. "And, soon, I promise that I'll have that functional fireplace in our bedroom that I've promised you."
Beverly hummed.
"But we can't stay wrapped in blankets and hovering by the fire all day," Beverly said. "Our clothing will never protect us when the cold really comes, especially if it lasts all day, every day—and, although we don't know that it will, we also don't know that it won't. I'm searching the rooms on the ship. Very few people have anything really suitable for cold weather. They replicated what they needed, when they needed it, but they didn't keep it in their quarters. There was no need to waste space."
"So—you intend to make winter clothing for us," Jean-Luc said.
He smiled at Beverly. There was a genuine appreciation in his smile—so genuine, in fact, that it struck Beverly and made her cheeks burn warm with her body's natural response.
"I will make winter clothing for us," she said. "And you will help."
"I'm hardly a seamstress," Jean-Luc said with a laugh.
"You're hardly inept," Beverly said. "And you have thumbs, Jean-Luc, and the capacity for learning. What you don't know, I'll teach you, and you'll hone your skills as you go."
"Of course…of course, I want to help," Jean-Luc said. "I'm afraid—my creations may not be the height of fashion, especially if I fail to really master sewing a straight line for a while."
"Look around you, Jean-Luc," Beverly said.
He laughed quietly.
"You're right," he said. "We do seem to be the only two here."
Beverly's heart felt like it stopped for a second in her chest. She kept her stride, though, and was thankful that he wasn't looking at her as they walked, comfortably, side-by-side back to their little home.
It could be argued that, in fact, they were not the only two on the planet. Whether or not they ever managed to find signs of other sentient beings living anywhere on the planet, there was already one more life in progress—no matter how new it was, or how tenuous, really.
Beverly wasn't ready, yet, to tell Jean-Luc about the little one. She hadn't decided, yet, how to tell him, and she didn't want to blurt it out while they were simply carrying things back to their shared living space. She felt like this was something that deserved to be handled more delicately and more deliberately.
She chose her words carefully, instead, so that she could feel confident that she hadn't exactly lied. She had, rather, simply avoided the topic.
"Nobody's going to care what we wear," Beverly said, "or what it looks like. Being warm is going to be more important than being fashionable. Still—I think I can help us make things that we're at least comfortable wearing."
"I'm sure you can," Jean-Luc said, sincerely. "You have done an extraordinary job, Beverly, at keeping both of us exceedingly comfortable in what might have, otherwise, been a very uncomfortable situation."
Beverly felt her stomach tighten. Something felt like it pricked inside of her. She asked herself if she dared to read into what Jean-Luc had said beyond the shallowest of meanings—and she finally decided that she wouldn't read into it. She would save herself from even thinking about what his words might mean.
Instead, she turned the conversation once more.
"Jean-Luc…"
"Mmm?" He hummed, clearly pulled from a daydream into which he'd drifted.
"Speaking of comfort," Beverly said, "would it be very difficult to expand our home? Add another room or…maybe even two?"
"Why would we do that?" He asked.
"To have more space," Beverly said. "Theoretically—how difficult would it be?"
"Well…" Jean-Luc said. He drew it out in such a way that Beverly felt like he was spending more time asking himself why they would bother doing that, than he was spending actually thinking about what she'd asked.
"We talked about using extra fireplace inserts to expand the fireplace in the living room," Beverly said, adding to her idea and, hopefully, keeping him from simply trying to think of a reason to stop them from doing the task. "And we've already decided to put a fireplace in our bedroom."
"Yes," Jean-Luc said, drawing that out a bit, as well. "We have, but…we've been somewhat planning on those changes for some time."
"We're going to have to remove panels to do that," Beverly said. "We're going to have to shift things around in the space. If we—if we combined an additional fireplace insert or two with the ones that we're already planning on using, we could possibly expand the chimneys and have two fireplaces, back-to-back, functioning off the same chimney, essentially. The pieces are all adjustable, aren't they?"
"Well—yes…I imagine that would be possible," Jean-Luc said. "They are all adjustable within reason and, really, within the scope of the contractor's abilities."
Beverly laughed quietly, hearing the tiny bit of teasing that had crept into Jean-Luc's words. She was thankful for it. It was only a little light teasing about their abilities—or the possible lack thereof—but it did a great deal to help lighten the mood and to relieve any stress caused by his confusion or her slight panic over the fact that, in the back of her mind, she was always acutely aware of the reason why all of this mattered so very much to her—a reason she wasn't wholly prepared to share, at the moment.
"We are both very capable," Beverly said.
"I might argue that…some of us are more capable than others," Jean-Luc said.
He was definitely teasing—at least a little. He clearly looked at Beverly, smirking, to see if he might get some response out of her. She felt her body respond, but she allowed him only a laugh and the lingering smile that was left when the laughter subsided.
"You're right," she teased back. "You are quite capable, Jean-Luc, in every sense of the word."
"I believe you know that that I was not referring to myself," Jean-Luc said.
"But I am," Beverly responded simply. He laughed quietly, but she sensed that he was pleased with the compliment. She felt warmed by the entire exchange—not that it was too cold, yet.
"If we remove the fireplace inserts from the housing kits, Jean-Luc, we'll have an excess of panels at any rate. We might as well place the panels so that we add to our space. It shouldn't be that much more difficult to do, especially not since we'll already be working on the house."
"No," Jean-Luc agreed, just as they crested the hill from which their little dwelling was visible. "I don't suppose it will be all that difficult. And, as you say, we've already planned to do some of the work."
"Which we really ought to do soon," Beverly said.
Jean-Luc laughed to himself.
"I am sensing an almost constant urgency, I must admit."
"I don't want us to get caught by the cold," Beverly said. "The days are cooler."
"They're shorter, too," Jean-Luc said, as a way of agreeing with her.
"You see?" Beverly responded. "We don't have a lot of time to waste, Jean-Luc."
"We are not yet in the midst of a crisis, either, Beverly," Jean-Luc said. "However—I understand that it matters a great deal to you that we finish everything as quickly as we can. Regardless, we are still only able to do complete one task at a time. Tonight—we will begin on some of the sewing. You can teach me what I need to know, and you can…show me how to begin improving my craft. Tomorrow, we will retrieve the additional kits and pieces that we require from the ship, and we will work together to figure out how to bring your vision into reality. In the meantime—do you think that you'll be able to…suspend your sense of urgency, for your own good?"
Beverly rolled her eyes at him, but she did laugh at his teasing.
"Thank you for…for being willing to help me do all of this," Beverly said.
"Well—it's hardly a sacrifice," Jean-Luc said. "We will both benefit, after all."
"I'm trying to thank you, Jean-Luc," Beverly said.
"Then, you are welcome," Jean-Luc said. "But—Beverly—why the desire for so much additional space? After all, it's only the two of us, and we've been quite comfortable so far, haven't we?"
Beverly's stomach churned, and she swallowed against the salty taste in her mouth. By some gift of nature, she hadn't been more than a little nauseous with this baby—something easily overcome and easily hidden. She didn't want that to change now. She wasn't ready.
She did her best to communicate that with her body—with the baby, even, if such a thing were possible. She willed herself not to be sick and, though she couldn't overcome the nausea entirely, she was able to keep down any proof of how she felt, at least for the time being.
"I just think it might be nice to have some additional space," Beverly said. "You never know what it might come in handy for, after all."
"I suppose it will come in handy for storage," Jean-Luc said. "We could put a great deal of things in two additional rooms."
Beverly smiled to herself, and then she swallowed the smile back.
"You're right, Jean-Luc," she offered. "We could put a great deal of things in two rooms."