AN: I'm doing this, especially, for myself and for one other person (who knows exactly who she is, and is a very bad influence in the best way possible). I am publishing it for anyone else who may want to enjoy it with us. I hope that some of you may want to enjoy it, and I accept if none of you do.
I own nothing from Star Trek.
Please know that this is a Triad story. If you don't like that, then please find something that is better for you. This is not the story for you.
I beg suspension of disbelief here. I have taken a great deal of liberties, and I will continue to do so. Please do not expect anything here to be exactly canon.
If you choose to read, I hope you enjoy! If you do enjoy, please do let me know! It always helps with inspiration and motivation to know that people care about the story!
The second piece is coming very soon!
111
"We've received a message," Geordi said.
"I thought communications were down," Jean-Luc responded.
"They are," Geordi said. "Along with the other damage I'm working on repairing, we're not getting any messages out."
"But they're coming in…" Jean-Luc said.
"It's impossible to say, really, what's going on," Geordi said. "I would have assumed that messages weren't getting through—given that it would be reasonable that someone from Starfleet might be trying to reach us by now, but…"
"What is it that you're not telling me?" Jean-Luc asked, when Geordi clearly hesitated.
"This one has a Romulan encryption," Geordi said. "And it came through a channel that I thought was out of commission years ago."
"And was it possibly sent using untraditional methods, as well?" Jean-Luc asked. He got a somewhat noncommittal nod from Geordi. "As if sent by…say…a Romulan spy?" Geordi gave another noncommittal nod. "I will take it alone. In my quarters. Can it be transferred?"
"Transferring now," Geordi said.
Geordi said nothing more to Jean-Luc. Jean-Luc thanked him and encouraged him to get back to his repairs. He heard all that Geordi didn't say—or, perhaps, all that he imagined he might.
Jean-Luc headed back to his room, feeling a bit unsettled. He couldn't imagine what the message might want to communicate to him. He couldn't imagine why she would encrypt it, beyond her natural nervousness as a former Tal Shiar member.
He couldn't imagine how he was going to reconcile all the pieces of his past, now that they were very much coming crashing together in his present.
111
"Come," Jean-Luc said, his voice catching in his throat.
"Jean-Luc…" Beverly said, her voice soft and sweet—and warmer than he felt like he deserved. His throat and his chest ached. It was moments like this that he wished that the body he'd been given hadn't been designed to retain so much of who he was as a human. It would be easier, after all, to be able to switch off these emotions.
"Beverly," he breathed out.
"You wanted to see me?"
"I always do," he said. It earned a smile from her. It was true, though. He did always want to see her.
After twenty years of separation, they had come back together. Just as it seemed they always had before, they practically crashed into each other. The passion and the chemistry—it never seemed to change, no matter how hard either of them fought against what seemed to practically be a magnetic pull between them.
This time, Jean-Luc had learned that he had a son with Beverly—one that she'd kept hidden from him all this time. Together, along with their friends and former crew members, they had saved their son.
Now, they were facing the future—and the return to a normal life, however that may look now.
Jean-Luc and Beverly still had a great deal to discuss. They had a great deal to navigate, as they decided what their lives would look like now. They had to decide what to do with the love that they'd only just found again and barely had time to rekindle. What they did know, though, and what they'd agreed upon already, was that life was too short to keep fighting against what they felt. They were both keenly aware of that—perhaps, now, more than they had ever been before.
Beverly had been so much of Jean-Luc's past, but she hadn't been all of it.
"I'm afraid—that I haven't been entirely honest with you, Beverly," Jean-Luc said. "And, now—I'm not sure what to do."
"This song sounds familiar," Beverly teased. She walked over to where he was. She sat down next to him. She put a hand familiarly on his thigh and squeezed it affectionately. She had squeezed his thigh quite differently, this morning, when they'd made love—again—and she'd reached a hand back to make this same sort of gesture.
She sighed deeply, perhaps thinking of this morning, as well—or, perhaps, thinking of how many times they'd had this same sort of dance throughout their lives.
"What is it, Jean-Luc?" She asked. "Just the truth this time. I'm too tired for games."
"You deserve the truth," he said. "Forgive me if—I abbreviate the story a great deal. It's quite long, and I am not sure that I have the time to spare. I'm a little—overwhelmed, I suppose."
"Just the most important pieces will do," Beverly said.
"About twenty years ago, two Romulans took refuge in my home. They were former Tal Shiar, and they were seeking asylum after turning on the Tal Shiar—for very noble reasons, I might add."
"That's almost certain death," Beverly said.
Jean-Luc nodded his head.
"A brutal death, at that. We all know that. The supernova really destroyed the strength of the Tal Shiar, and these two Romulans, Zhaban and Laris—husband and wife—lived peacefully with me at the Château. He passed a few years ago, rather unexpectedly, and…well…the friendship between Laris and I…"
"Grew into something more?" Beverly supplied, when he hesitated. He must have made a face, or else Beverly was simply able to sense his reactions. She offered him a smile. "It's been twenty years, Jean-Luc. I hardly expected you to remain celibate and wait for me."
"And, yet, there has only been Laris," Jean-Luc said. "In all this time."
Beverly drew in a deep breath and let it out with a sigh.
"So—you love her," Beverly said.
He nodded. There was no need to play games with Beverly. They were all tired—in more ways than one—and she deserved better than that.
"And I love you," Jean-Luc said. "I have loved you longer. I have loved you for as long as I can remember."
"There's more to this story," Beverly said.
"When I received your message, it was Laris that encouraged me to come," Jean-Luc said. "She was going to Chaltok IV to do some security work on behalf of the Federation. She was going to work as something of a liaison between the Romulan colony there and the Federation. I believe that—she thought I wouldn't come back. That I would find you, and…"
"Do exactly what you've done," Beverly offered. She laughed quietly. "She's smart, and it sounds like she knows you well."
"She said that she would—watch the sunset in this little bar on Chaltok IV. She said she would save me a seat for when I came back. I don't believe she was actually going to sit and wait for me every night, but…"
"You wouldn't have come, otherwise," Beverly said. "She knew that. I know a thing or two about…cutting lose the great Jean-Luc Picard."
Jean-Luc swallowed. His whole being ached.
"Beverly…"
"Tell me the rest of it, Jean-Luc," Beverly said.
"There was a message that came through—encrypted on a channel that Geordi didn't realize was even still functioning. It was sent to me, and I knew her encryption code. Of course, I'm no fool, and I assume that she has more than one, but there's always been one, in particular, that she has used with me, whenever such a thing was necessary. I was able to access her message and the attached files."
"What does the message say?" Beverly asked.
"I think you should see it for yourself," Jean-Luc said.
Beverly watched the message, as Jean-Luc watched it again. He felt more ill the second time he watched it than he had the first time—the reality of it all seeming to seep past what might have been shock from his first viewing.
The entire message was overwhelming—too much to process, really. It seemed as though it couldn't be real and, yet, Jean-Luc knew that it must be real.
"Let me see this," Beverly said, moving herself in front of the screen after the message played. "It's encrypted, but it carries these files."
"I haven't opened them," Jean-Luc admitted. "I was too…"
"I understand," Beverly said. She did open them. He looked on as she scanned the information. At first, it made no sense to Jean-Luc.
"More Romulan concealment," Jean-Luc said.
"On the contrary," Beverly said. "Very important information. This is a bio code, Jean-Luc. The key codes for a bio sign. This information, put into a tricorder, would give me the basic information that I need on a patient who isn't present to be scanned at the moment—but who I would need to prepare to treat. We use it, sometimes, when there's a known incoming emergency. That's not all Laris sent us…these are written in code, yes, but…Jean-Luc, these are coordinates. She's telling us where to go. She's telling us where she is—where they are."
"The Enterprise is in dire need of repairs," Jean-Luc said. "At the moment, we can't even get the ship back to Starfleet Headquarters."
"The Enterprise isn't the best ship to take into this, anyway," Beverly said. "We're not going to fight the Tal Shiar, Jean-Luc. We're just going to pull one Romulan out of there, if we can. A shuttle is a better choice for getting in and getting out."
The message had been a little difficult to understand—likely owing to the fact that Laris was very clearly overwhelmed. There was a group of Tal Shiar—how large or small they were, Jean-Luc wasn't entirely sure—that was making an effort to rise to power again. Secretive as always, they were attacking Romulan colonies. Chaltok IV, it seemed, was among those colonies. Several Romulans had been executed already. Others had disappeared. Those who were at risk of either, or both, of those fates, had begun trying to find out where the faction was located. They believed they had found them, and they believed that they could eliminate them before they grew to be a bigger threat. They believed they stood a better chance, if they could surprise them and begin their attack before bringing in larger entities that might only force them to go underground and come back later; bigger, stronger, and at a time when the guard was down again.
Laris was, it seemed, one among them that was going to fight.
Her message to Jean-Luc had been to tell him that she wouldn't lead them back to the Château, and that his home and dog—Number One—were safe.
Her message had been to tell him—not goodbye—but, rather, why she might be delayed in finding him at the little spot where they would watch the sunset together. That was what she said. Jean-Luc knew, though, that she was only being positive for his benefit.
"What are you proposing?" Jean-Luc asked.
"She sent us the coordinates," Beverly said. "She sent—this message to you, Jean-Luc, but this is her biological code for scanners and some very important pieces of medical information. She sent these to me."
"Why? I don't understand."
Beverly laughed quietly.
"I would imagine that, if any human could understand Romulans, it might be you," Beverly said. "Will warned me, without telling me everything, I know now, that you had been ass-deep in them for decades. Still—you aren't always the most observant. She sent this to me, Jean-Luc. The message was for you, but this…this was for me."
"For what? To help me past the grief of losing her?" Jean-Luc asked.
"She knows that you'll tell the Federation where the Romulans are. You'll pass on these coordinates. And she's right; we will. She doesn't have to be a traitor again—not exactly—and she may still stop some needless deaths. The bio code will help us find her. It will verify, for a brief amount of time, if she's in a place or has recently been in that location. If we enter it into the scanners of the shuttle, we can track her, specifically, even if she's being evasive, otherwise."
"It isn't safe…" Jean-Luc said.
"That's never really stopped us before."
"I don't want to put you in danger, Beverly. Not after…just having found you again. Having found this."
"And I won't be left behind," Beverly offered with a smirk.
"Our son…"
"Will find out when everyone else does," Beverly said. "We're not bringing Jack into this. If we do this, it's just you and me. What do you say, Jean-Luc? Do you have another adventure left in you?"
"We may be putting our lives on the line," Jean-Luc said.
"It wouldn't be any fun, if we didn't," Beverly teased. "You love her, Jean-Luc. And—I'm not sure what that means for us, right now, but I know that I can't just sit here and let her die without knowing that we tried something."
"I don't know that she wants rescuing," Jean-Luc said. "Honor…"
"Is very complicated, and entirely ridiculous," Beverly said. "Especially when it costs lives—good lives. We'll leave these coordinates with a message to Geordi. As soon as communications are online, which is bound to be any time now, he can send them to Starfleet. They'll help put down this uprising before it becomes any worse than it already has. In the meantime, we'll go and stop Laris from losing her life to the Tal Shiar."
"And if we're too late?" Jean-Luc said.
"At the very least, you'll know," Beverly said. "You'll know, and I'll know…and maybe that's all she really meant by sending me the information in the first place. But I'm a doctor, Jean-Luc, and I can't sit idly by and allow death where there might be some way for me to stop it."
"And if we all die?"
Beverly half-shrugged her shoulders.
"That's a risk we accepted a long time ago," Beverly said. She winked at Jean-Luc and his heart fluttered. "Today is a good day to die."
"Wrong species," he teased.
"Either way, we die with honor," Beverly said. "Record a message for Geordi and leave it here with these coordinates. They'll find it as soon as they know we're gone. Transfer the coordinates to a PADD for us to use. I'll pack a bag from sickbay, just in case. The shuttle has basic medical equipment, but a little extra won't hurt. Meet me at the shuttle bay in half an hour."
"Are we going to talk about…us, Beverly? My relationship with Laris. The complication of those two things together?"
"We don't have time for that right now," Beverly said. "But—if we don't die? There'll be plenty of time later."
"That may mean that I'm only slipping death in one way to meet it another," Jean-Luc said, laughing quietly.
Beverly kissed him. It was unexpected, but it was welcomed. For a moment, he indulged in the kiss. When she pulled out of the kiss, he could have sworn she was twenty years younger—that he was twenty years younger. At least, that's how he felt, even if time clearly hadn't reversed itself.
"Shut up and stop wasting time, Jean-Luc."
He laughed quietly. His pulse pounded at the realization that this was real. They were really doing this—and he had no idea how it might turn out but, at least, they were doing this together.
"Yes, ma'am," he offered with a wink.