Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You're all fabulous.
Day 24: The Trouble with Moms
From: MomOU
To: NyotaUM
Time arrived: 3/14/2260 00:00:01
Subject: How is the five year mission for you?
How are you Nyota? I haven't heard from you since your mission began and I just wanted to see how things were. I know how the ship is doing. Pike is a friend. If anything was really going wrong she would tell me, even if Rodriguez isn't speaking to me anymore. I know your first officer or is it other captain managed to get the MOU signed. That's a good step forward since we've had such a hostile relationship previously. I guess not starving to death is good enough motivation to take the first tenuous steps toward normalizing relations.
So what have you been doing? How is your stepdaughter adjusting to life on the ship? How are you adjusting to full-time parenthood and a small space where you can't run away?
Please write me back when you have a chance. I know we haven't always had the best relationship, but I'm hoping things can get better.
xxxxxx
From: NyotaU
To: Leonard M
Time sent: 3/14/2260 12:02:13
Subject: My mom just emailed me.
Please see message below from my mom. I'm not even sure how to respond or if I should respond. I mean, she was great at Christmas, but I'm still angry. I might even be angrier now that Josephine is here with us. I mean, there was a coup d'état on the planet we're orbiting, and we managed to keep our baby safe. Why couldn't they do that? Why couldn't they have fought harder for that?
Xxxx
From: LeonardUM
To: NyotaUM
Time sent: 3/14/2260 12:49:13
Subject: Re: My mom just emailed me.
Sorry, Nyota, you have to respond. And not just because she's an admiral that could make our work life very difficult if she wanted to. Although, that's a big part of it. If my child was in deep space, I would want to know how she was doing. She's trying. That's all you can ask for. Now that you're a parent, you should realize that parents are not perfect and make a ton of mistakes. We are people too. Some of us are more screwed up than others. That doesn't mean you have to forgive her, but an email would help. Besides, some of it may have been out of her control. You know I would've done anything before to be with Jo Jo, but her mother made sure that was not a possibility.
Also, sorry I couldn't have lunch with you. Half of engineering has the Romulan flu. I don't even want to know how they contracted that.
Xxxx
From: NyotaUM
To: LeonardUM
Time sent: 3/14/2260 14:02:13
Subject: Re: My mom just emailed me.
It's okay. I don't even want to know how so many in engineering ended up with that strain of flu. Did they all skip their vaccinations? I hope you make it to dinner at least.
She did ask about Josephine which is good. She referred to her as my stepdaughter, but baby steps. Although maybe I didn't tell her about the adoption. I'll try to draft something tonight and let you look over it so you can delete all the curse words.
Also, you know you can't blame yourself for the previous bad custody arrangement. Josephine knows that you would've been there if you could.
Xxxxx
From: LeonardUM
To: NyotaUM
Time arrived: 3/14/2260 16:45:01
Subject: How is the five year mission for you?
Thank you for at least trying to meet her halfway.
Dr. Culber has the second shift tonight. Since I find him competent enough to deal with everything in his own, I'll be there for dinner. Sometimes I wonder how he ended up on this ship.
Xxxx
From: NyotaUM
To: LeonardUM
Time sent: 3/14/2260 18:02:13
Subject: Draft response: Thank You for your email
Please read below and let me know if this is safe to send to my mom. I think I kept the anger to a bare minimum on this. Let me know what you think.
xxx
I am good, wonderful. It helps that Leonard is actually an involved parent. We make a good team. We have no idea why Josephine would rather sit with me at lunch then her classmates, but we'll figure it out eventually. Josephine's OK or as OK as you can be six months after losing your mom and being shipped off to a strange starship filled with weird strangers, some of whom were assholes.
BTW it probably helps that we're actually with her instead of sending her off to boarding school to deal with grief alone. Thank God I had Marc. I don't think Josephine has that. None of her Georgia friends have emailed her at all, only Admiral Chen's daughter and Captain Spock's brother-in-law. They have bonded over mutual loss, but I don't think that will happen with the Ashleys. They seem way too superficial or at least are trying to deal with their grief through superficiality. I have hope for Jay, sort of.
Leonard is good. He is currently dealing with a flu epidemic, but he is getting through it. He likes the new nurses and doctors on his team. Thankfully none are crazy and trying to sleep with my husband. I like Dr. Culber, more importantly Leonard likes the doctor. He actually trusts the man to take care of his medical bay while he's having dinner with us tonight.
Leonard might even have a new friend. You have no idea how hard it is for him to make friends or me for that matter which is probably why we're together. I think we're going to try to do a dinner sometime. Dr.
Margarita says I need more adult friends. Yes, I am still in therapy. I'm probably going to be there a while.
xxxxxxx
From: LeonardUM
To: NyotaUM
Time sent: 3/14/2260 18:32:13
Subject: Draft response: Thank You for your email
I think you can send that as soon as you replace husband with boyfriend. You don't want her to think that we eloped sometime during the mission.
To be continued.