Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are all fabulous. We had a bit of a time jump because Devon has been chaos. Also, I'm working off of the assumption that the Romulan ship landed in a slightly different dimension and then completely torpedoed the timeline. So some events from the original timeline might be blatantly different because parallel dimension or may have been years earlier like baby D being born. This will come in to play for this chapter.

Day 157: What went down in Devon

From: Legal Queen

To: kitten_loverJJMU

Subject: I got your artwork.

Time arrived: 7/28/2260 00:00:01

Hey, this is your aunt. Brand-new email address because I needed a change. I'm probably not going to be in Atlanta much longer. I'm moving on and that means leaving the old behind in all its forms.

I got your paintings. They are really good. You are very talented. I'm going to have to make sure you get more art supplies for your b-day. It may be a little late, but I'm sure you'll enjoy it. I ran into a few more of your ex friends recently and you're probably better off making new ones. The Ashleys seem interesting, from what I've heard from you and others. I'm glad things are less antagonistic now. Maybe you all just needed time to adjust. My best friend was like my arch nemesis for the first two years of high school, but then we bonded over asshole fathers and we have been inseparable ever since. He let me cry all over him last year at the you know what before we went to hide in the ball pit next-door.

Yes, your grandfather's dating habits are creepy, but so is he. I felt that way before the new wives were younger than me. Let us hope he passes away before they are younger than you. You're right. I need to get out of here. I have for a long time. Especially because daddy dearest got me fired from my firm. I really liked that job. Like I said earlier, it's time for me to leave Atlanta behind. Thanks to your dad, I am licensed to practice in California and several other territories throughout the Federation.

I am not even surprised Judge Lee got me fired. Even though the custody trial was a large fall from grace for him, he still has connections in the Georgia legal scene and he obviously wants me at the family firm.

Did your dad ever tell you what happened to him post-divorce? You know he didn't really want to join Starfleet or leave you behind on Earth, but it was only place that would take him after your grandfather blackballed him from most medical institutions. He still had child support to pay. Although it wasn't all your grandfather's doing. They say you shouldn't talk badly of the dead, but let us not pretend that my sister is something that she's not. We know better.

Don't worry about me. I have a few job interviews far away from Georgia in the next couple weeks, including with the Matthews firm. That's tomorrow, actually. So that means I'll be several thousand miles away on the one year anniversary of the tree incident. I think they're dealing with the custody case of your special baby friend. So fingers crossed I find a new job and end up several thousand miles away from your grandfather permanently.

I'm glad you're working on getting over your anger at me. I'm currently trying to get over my anger at myself, but it's hard. So many things are obvious in hindsight that I didn't see or maybe that I thought were normal. Grandpa really fucked up my mind. I should probably censor what I'm writing to you, but well, you've seen enough where curse words really aren't that that awful in comparison.

From: kitten_loverJJMU

To: Legal Queen

Subject: Re: I got your artwork.

Time sent: 7/28/2260 12:16:01

Apparently, it took nearly 2 weeks for this letter to get here. I am not completely surprised. We are currently orbiting the Devon research colony. Mom says that communication abilities here are not that good. Also something obviously bad is going on because dad hasn't been back to the room for 24 hours. Not a good sign.

I know what grandpa did. Google's been around for over two centuries. It's quite useful. I can't believe she claimed that dad hit me. Probably best that I didn't read that until after she died. This is why I had so many conflicting feelings on the anniversary.

It went okay, but I think it was easier being here with dad, other mom, and my friends. We made brownies. I also had Russian lessons. Never have a crush on your Russian tutor, especially when he sees you as his favorite little sister. Although I'm a little more okay with that, now that I know what happened. She died the year before he came to the Academy. Actually, her death was why he came to the Academy right before he turned 14. He didn't want to stick around to see his parents' marriage fall apart first hand. Seeing it all come undone at five was hard enough. I think at 14, it would be so much worse.

I'm glad you had a job interview. I think San Francisco would be good. Anywhere, but Atlanta really. Isn't your BFF actually close to there in Oakland? You stayed there when you came to visit.

I don't care about my old friends there anymore. The fact that they haven't written to me once in the almost 6 months that I've been on ship shows me that. I have new friends, better ones that were there for me on the anniversary of the tree incident. I'm glad all the anniversary bad days are over for right now. The next thing of importance is my birthday in August. Fingers crossed, that's the day Jeremy's leaving the ship. That's all I really want.

I'll try to write again soon. Although, keep me posted on the job search. I'm sure you'll find something great and far away from grandpa.

From: SuluHG2260

To: Benjamin_2254

Subject: Today was a bad work day

Time sent: 7/29/2260 22:12:01

It looks like I'm keeping my promise of writing you more even without a reply. It's possible my last message hasn't even got to Earth yet. We are just starting to get civilian emails again after nearly a week. Communications abilities are low because of our current Devon assignment, so Starfleet communications took precedence.

Devon was kind of a disaster and therefore I need to talk to you, especially after the last letter that I just wrote to my brother-in-law. Technically, Spock should have wrote to inform him that the biological mother of his two children, Alicia died on Devon but I felt like it should come from me. Family, by marriage is still family. That's my responsibility.

I can't give you details on what happened. I'm pretty sure everything is going to go into the highly classified file of Enterprise shenanigans. Especially because of Jim and Spock's idea to take care of the situation. It was brilliant, but weird.

I never liked Alicia because my nieces are adorable and how could you possibly just abandon one of them at the hospital. But well dying Alicia did help us come up with a solution along with some old friend of Jim's named Aurelian. She didn't make it either, unfortunately.

Even though she abandoned her daughter in the hospital, I didn't exactly wish for her to die. I don't think Jie even wants her dead, especially because her leaving led to meeting my sister. She was his baby shower planner. It's a long story. Someday when I'm not exhausted. I'll tell you everything.

So after writing that piece of bad news, I kind of just need to talk to you. I wish I could call you just to hear your voice, but not possible. Jim is in the middle of an emergency conference with command. I may have watched a few video files from June.

I hope I get a letter from you soon. I really want to know how your visit with Shawn went. Although the fact I haven't got an emergency message from you. I hope still points to good things. I understand why it's taken a while. One, we are very far out from Earth. The only thing that's getting to Earth quickly are what is referred to as trans-warp messages. That can only be used in emergency situations like getting Jeremy off the ship after he tried to harass Ashley 2 or dealing with the Devon fallout.

There is a lot of fallout. Currently we have 10 recently orphaned children in Enterprise medical being treated. I think they'll make it. However, they can't return to the colony alone, which means going into the system. For those who don't have family somewhere else anyway. Regardless, this means we'll be heading to a Star base sooner rather than later.

Silver lining, this means I might be able to call you. Other silver lining, Jeremy will be getting off the ship so much quicker.

Although it almost seems cruel to ship kids who just lost their parents off to Earth or who knows where else by themselves. One of the recently orphaned kids is the son of Jim's friend Aurelian. Apparently, she dated Jim's brother before he died on Tarsus. He kind of looks like a mini Jim actually. Jim is really apprehensive about sending him to Aurelian's parents because, as Jim put it, they are abusive and horrible. I kind of caught him crying in the bathroom earlier. He's not okay. None of us really are.

Anyway, love you. Give all the babies an extra hug for me tonight.

PS: Next time you see my sister and brother-in-law, can you be extra wonderful to them. I feel like this is going to be hard on both of them.