Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. All of you are wonderful and keep me and the happy writing zone.
Day 52: I Survived Midterms and all I'm Getting is Amusement Park Tickets
From: Kevin KR
To: Spock's_cuddlebunny
Time arrived: 4/13/2260 00:00:01
Subject: Praise everyone midterms are over
I think we're OK. All midterms are over, and I have at least six weeks before I must start thinking about finals. You'll be happy to know that my perfect GPA is still intact. Although, I'm pretty sure Liz got a B + in a class because the guy hates her mom.
Anyway, in celebration we are taking baby D to her very first amusement park. Probably Knottsberry Disney or maybe Disney's Princess land. Or maybe Disney's Pixar land. It doesn't really matter almost every park on the West Coast is owned by Disney now, but we will have fun anyway. OK we're planning to do the family getaways so baby D and Liz do not have to smile and nod next to her mom at the remembrance ceremony. The baby is too young for that and her therapist feels like it would totally be a trigger.
We also decided to take Ben with us. Okay, we decided to take baby K with us and it's only polite to ask her dad to join us. It was Sue's idea, but a good one. Liz lost classmates, but Ben lost his husband. I think he's dealing with it better than Winona ever did, but it's better for him to just be somewhere else. I know I can't deal with anything else on top of my Tarsus baggage. I don't want to think about how hard this day is for him.
I think Mom might come with us. She likes my girlfriend's niece, and this is probably as close as she is going to get to grandkids for at least a decade. Although I haven't actually asked her yet but we have a couple of weeks to go before the anniversary anyway. I'm sure we can convince her to come.
I'm going to miss the Niblett when she is living full time with grandma next year, but we will grab her for fun activities whenever possible and probably play dates with Ben and his daughter. It's necessary. They will be a blended family very soon. Please tell me somebody is running a betting pool on when they will get married? Liz made a small fortune with you guys.
Yes, mama is still sober. Yes, I'm shocked about that, but I'm hopeful. I know San Francisco has its own ghosts, but maybe there are fewer here than in Riverside. At least she has friends here. That's better than Iowa. I don't think mom ever felt comfortable there. Everybody was always so nasty to her. I think she only stayed there because that was the home that Winona and your dad made for you guys. But we're all grown up now.
I'm glad your kids are getting better. Were there any April Fools' Day shenanigans? I haven't heard from Josephine yet, but maybe I shouldn't be concerned. It took almost a week for me to get your last email. I feel like it may have been the perfect opportunity to get back at Jeremy. You know the asshole deserves anything done to him. I hate bullies so much.
I'm glad you're dealing with your own trauma. I mean I'm happy you're helping the kids deal with their trauma, but I'm glad you're really addressing what happened because it's hard. I mean I still have food issues. I'm trying not to store protein bars under the bed at Sue's house, but do you know it's hard to break those habits.
Anyway, keep me posted on your efforts with the teenagers.
From: Kevin KR
To: kitten_loverJJMU
Time arrived: 4/12/2260 01:00:01
Subject: Re: Really, I'm okay.
Okay the Starfleet email system is weird. I got Jim's email an entire day before yours even though it looks like you sent them on the same day. Liz says not to be surprised. Her mom used to send her and Sue messages and sometimes they would arrive a week apart, even though they were sent one after the other. Liz says a day is good.
Okay I want to know if you eventually did take advantage of April Fools' Day. I know something big happened because Liz's mom has been cranky for at least the last week because she's been dealing with the fallout. Apparently, some days her job is just god-awful.
Jim made it sound like things are getting better. Are they or is he looking at the situation from the lens of an adult? You really should let him know what's going on. If the bullying is still at peak awfulness, Jim will help in any way he can even though he can't punch out your bullies. He did that a lot with mine. He always tried to be the best big brother.
From: Spock's_cuddlebunny
To: Kevin KR
Time sent: 4/12/2260 00:23:21
Subject: Re: Praise everyone midterms are over
You know I don't think you're supposed to ask me questions about illegal gambling on my ship. It's even less cool than before because first officers know what's going on in the ship where captains are buried in bureaucracy. However, talk to JoJo's mom. Nyota always has the hook up.
Oh God April Fools' Day was a disaster and it wasn't even the kids. Someone tried to kill his ex-girlfriend by talking with the replicators and adding eggs to everything. It was awful. I'm still dealing with paperwork and I have no idea when we're going to be able to drop them off at the nearest Star base for court-martial proceedings.
I mean at least the kids followed the no list, to the exact letter, although not necessarily the spirit of the list. Jeremy still doesn't have eyebrows. His are now baby blue, instead of Smurf blue like he was at first, but it's still going to be a while before he is back to his actual skin tone. Sonic showers can only do so much. I have attached pictures. This may end up my screensaver. I know it's cruel, but it's cathartic. Unfortunately, Jeremy is being a brat despite this, but everyone else is starting to tone down a little bit.
The amusement park idea is brilliant. I'm trying to think of something to do for Spock and maybe for the Ashleys. Make your own Sunday bar. It will be cookies. I can't get a cookie bouquet here, but I may have the ingredients to make fresh cookies. Well eggless cookies. If you stay in the fleet long enough, you'll learn how to cook with just the shelf stable stuff. I learned to make the best egg free brownies during my semester in space.
I should ask when you are doing your semester in space. I know your girlfriend did hers when she was a freshman because she has the hook up and was already a sophomore. But what about you? Would that be a problem, if your girlfriend's sister and Sulu decide that you and Liz should have custody of bubble baby? Would that affect you doing another internship this summer? Are you going to do another internship?
Or are you not doing it? Your letter made it sound like baby D would totally be living with grandma. Or maybe you think he's not going to choose you guys?
He is taking the possibility of you having the baby very seriously. I think you're going to win out over grandma so don't worry about missing the Niblett just yet.
I gave you a stellar recommendation. I said all good things. Although, I didn't tell him about you pretty much taking care of mom for the last four years, but I may have implied it heavily. Of course, he had a normal childhood without parents with alcoholism so maybe he doesn't quite get it.
I'm sad that Jojo hasn't written you yet. She's been quiet lately, but I get it. Still adjusting and everything. I am just concerned. At least her Vulcan lessons are going well, in the sense that her ability to speak Vulcan has increased dramatically. She has another lesson tonight. She's not telling Spock anything at all, but an hour with Spock is an hour out of the grasp of Jeremy. He is being a total prick after he lost his eyebrows.
In other good news, the other two Ashleys are now starting to act almost well behaved after their penance for their April Fools' Day joke on us. I totally should have specifically said not to screw with the Captain's wardrobe, but I thought anybody with any common sense would figure that out on their own. The Ashleys not so much. The good news is we got a new wardrobe. Unfortunately, the quartermaster thinks that Spock is violent during private time, but whatever. Yeah you probably didn't want to know that. But as your big brother, I'm supposed to embarrass you like crazy. It's in the job description.
Despite all these trivial things, overall things are good aboard Enterprise. It would be better if we didn't have to smile for the cameras on the day of the anniversary, but I just have a feeling that that's when we will finally be able to drop the guy who tried to kill his ex-girlfriend at a Star base. You know they're going to make Spock their poster boy because his mom died during the battle. Last year was not fun. I think I may have Bones make up some rare Vulcan disease, so Spock doesn't have to speak to a crowd on the day his mom died. Good spouses do stuff like that right?
Anyway, miss you baby brother. I support your foray into temporary parenthood. Please don't make it permanent parenthood. Remember contraceptive hypos are your friend. Seriously, do not knock up my boss's daughter. I'm tired of having bosses that want to kill me.
From: kitten_loverJJMU
To: Kevin KR
Time arrived: 4/13/2260 21:04:01
Subject: Re: Really, I'm okay.
That's okay, although that does explain why Uncle Jim told me to email you today when I was having dinner with him before class with Uncle Spock. He was happy to know that I did write to you earlier, but it just took a while for you to get the message Language classes are going well. Although he refuses to teach me Vulcan curse words. I want to be able to call Jeremy a dick without him realizing it. Mom would know. But mom wouldn't care. Actually, I think she threatened to dismember him in Klingon just this morning. I'm not sure because she's also refusing to teach me Klingon curse words.
By the way, I made Jeremy blue and it was glorious. Pictures attached. Your brother forgot to put a moratorium on adding dye to shampoo. It's been two weeks and he's still a light blue.
Also, Ashley one and three are no longer being openly hostile. This is a surprising occurrence. It started a couple of days ago after Jeremy said some not so pleasant things about my deceased mother. I mean, I can understand why Ashley two would react that way since her dad died during the battle of Vulcan. Her parents were already divorced like mine were by that point, but it still hurt. The others, I don't understand why they would react that way.
I'm not surprised your brother acted that way. He is protective of everyone. Especially us kids, except for maybe Jeremy. Jeremy is a prick.
Anyway, I'll try to write again soon.
To be continued