riverview | @b.crusher

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@b.crusher | video

[Nine years. Nine years since she stepped back through the portal, nine years since she returned to the Enterprise, nine years that inevitably faded some of the memories of this place - but not everything. The faces she knows. Even if she forgets now where that cute little corner market was or what the hell half these gifs and memes mean anymore (if she ever understood in the first place) Beverly never forgets a coworker, a patient, a friend. And she left them all in such a hurry. The portal's connection to her time and place had been tenuous, she had to go then, or risk losing her chance to go home all together.

And now... now she's back, exhausted by the weight of war and the toll of death, new lines etched into her face. When the portal specialist told her it had only been a week since she'd left, she had to laugh. Of course. It seems this place isn't ready to let go of her.

Though not typically a frequenter of the network, it is the easiest and quickest way for her to contact multiple people at once. She doesn't want anyone (else - apologies to Lucretia) to be caught unawares by her sudden reappearance, so she leaves a quick video message:]

Good Morning. This is Dr. Beverly Crusher [of the USS Enterprise no more] reporting that I have returned to Riverview.

[For god's sake, woman, this isn't a mission log. She offers a smile - it's a little sad, but a smile nonetheless.]

I wanted to apologize to those I left without proper goodbyes. I hope you got my messages, at least. I'll be at my apartment for the rest of the day if anyone wants to stop by. Thank you.

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(Beverly shakes her head and smiles.)

No, I remembered. I remembered everything. My best guess is that you have to physically go through the portal to remember. The cannisters, whatever they are, aren't enough.

(She glances down at Lucretia's hand resting on the sofa, just waiting to be held. It'd be a shame not to oblige, wouldn't it? Lightly, she rests her hand on Lucretia's.)

And I had to tell Jean-Luc. At this point, he's my oldest friend. (Oldest still living, that is. She shoves down the burst of guilt she feels at leaving him again, especially so soon after losing so much.) Besides, he understands better than you might imagine. He once lived an entire lifetime away from our world. Fell in love, had children, built a life. Yet for us, only twenty minutes had passed.

(Beverly's hand covering her own makes her smile. It feels a little bit like when they first started dating, and were infamously trying to 'take things slow'.)

Twenty minutes... that's bizarre. (And for Beverly, it would have seemed like no time passed at all. She'd lived an entire year here, and nobody had been any the wiser. It's a strange thing to try and parse.)

What else happened? (Nine years is a lot of ground to cover!)

(It does feel a little like that - minus the fact that Beverly just essentially proposed spending the rest of their lives together. It might seem foolhardy to some but it feels like the right thing. Her gut tells her this is where she's supposed to be, finally.)

Do you remember Odo? He wasn't here for very long so I don't know if you had a chance to meet him...

I did. He was staying at your apartment at the time.

(In a bucket. She remembers!) You saw him again. How is he?

(In a bucket. Is that bucket still here? She can't remember if she kept it or not. Glancing around, she doesn't see it in the living room, but probably she wouldn't have left it out here anyway.)

He's all right. I only ever saw him for a few minutes at a time, on the station, there was simply too much happening for a proper reunion. And now, I've heard he's gone home.

(Which may not make any sense to Lucretia, she realizes. The Changelings have become such a looming part of Beverly's world, it's easy to forget that's not the case here.)

When he and I were here, before, Odo was the only one of his species he'd ever known or that anyone in our quadrant had encountered. Not too long after I returned, however, the Federation made contact with them, at the other side of the galaxy. Through a wormhole. Turns out his people were extreme xenophobes, automatically distrustful of any other species they met, save for the ones they bred for their own purposes. Instead of locking themselves away from everyone else, they decided to conquer other worlds instead. They even called themselves the Dominion and set themselves up as gods.

(She had kept it, but Lucretia had unthinkingly moved it to the bathroom. It's underneath of the sink, and filled with cleaning supplies.

She listens attentively, leaning back into the couch and flipping her hand over automatically to hold Beverly's properly. It's so soothing, to watch her speak. To be sitting on the couch with her, watching her tell a story, when Lucretia had thought that all of this were over. The raw hurt of being left so abruptly is already starting to heal over just from having her close again.

If only her subject matter were as nice.) That's horrible, (she mutters. Imagine finally discovering your kin, only to be met with... that.) What did he do? Did you manage to make contact with them at all?

(Beverly squeezes Lucretia's hand gratefully. Her hand feels like an anchor, a reminder that as awful as everything was, it's over now and she can start thinking about the future again.)

We did and it led to war.

(She shakes her head in disbelief.)

I never thought we'd see anything like that. The war only lasted two years but it was horrible. Millions dead, millions more left with destroyed homes and ways of life... it changed all of us.

(She's quiet for a long moment, dismayed. It's hard to think of Beverly being at war, being in constant danger... how difficult those severe losses must have been for her and her crew, too.)

I'm so sorry. (She squeezes her hand, and turns toward her a little more on the couch,) for all that you lost, and that you ever had to go through it in the first place. What... caused it to cease?

Odo.

(She sighs softly. It's more complicated than that, with rumors of Section 31's involvement and some very un-Federation-like activities but her knowledge of what exactly happened is slim. Someone from Deep Space Nine would likely know better than her.)

He brokered the peace and returned to what Changelings call The Great Link. On their planet, in their natural state, they exist as a liquid, a giant ocean where they are all connected to one another.

So... he's gone?

(She looks a little unsettled at the thought of this great, collective consciousness. Lucretia thinks she would very much hate to be part of such a thing, even if it did offer a kind of eternal company.) Are you able to contact him like that?

Not gone, he just... went home. I haven't seen or heard from him since the war but that's not surprising.

(After all, the only thing they had in common was the Quarantine and life continued for them down separate paths.)

He's where he needs to be.

Okay.

(That's a relieving sentiment at least!) What happened after the war? Were you at peace for the rest of the time you were away?

(She shakes her head.)

The Borg were still threat. They attacked Earth.... only.... well, it was complicated. But we did defeat them, finally. Not only us but there was a ship, Voyager, that got lost for seven years, all the way across the galaxy. They found where the Borg came from.

(She nods, processing this bit by bit.)

I'm assuming you were able to exact suitable revenge for what happened to your Captain?

I don't know that there can ever be true revenge against an enemy like the Borg and the pursuit of it nearly drove Jean-Luc to his death.

(And not just him, the crew too, and all of Earth.)

He met her. The Borg Queen. Like termites or ants, the hive all circle around her. But even when one Queen dies, that's not the end. There are other hives, other Queens - so although he could look this one in the eye, talk to her, kill her, it wasn't enough to destroy them, not completely.

(The mental image isn't a good one. Lucretia shivers delicately, and smooths her thumb over Beverly's knuckles.)

Are... you committed to purging the universe of them? Or is that an impossible task?

Impossible? (She lets out a big sigh before answering.) No, I don't think so. At this point in my life, there are very few things that I think are truly impossible. But I also think this particular task is something best left to the next generation.

Huh.

(It runs that deep? The statement makes sense though, especially with Beverly's intent to... come back through the portal with her. That part feels extremely unreal still. For a moment she's silent, thoughtful.)

Perhaps, some day, Wesley will bring us good news.

(Beverly wishes it were different but at the same time, peace with the Klingons wasn't achieved in just one generation either, and certainly not by one single crew. It takes time for change to happen.

She squeezes Lucretia's hand.)

One day, yes. Until then, I'm ready to put that stage of my life behind me. I'd already decided to leave the Enterprise, you know.

Did you? You didn't tell me.

(Unless she means during her time away, she'd come to that decision? She has to keep reminding herself that Beverly wasn't gone for a week, she was gone for nine years. It was simply compressed into a week... it's hard to wrap her head around it.)

(Right. Nine years and so much to tell her. It's hard to keep it all straight. And... they haven't even touched on Ronin yet.)

Yes. Just before I was brought back here. (She shakes her head.) Our last mission, it became too much. We... (She has to pause here, trying not to cry again. This grief is still too fresh.) We lost Data.

(She still knows Beverly's minute tells like the back of her hand; the little pause she takes before continuing to speak is telling. Enough to make Lucretia scoot across the couch closer to her until their shoulders gently touch. She lifts their clasped hands into her lap.)

I'm so sorry.

(Beverly closes her eyes, rests her head against Lucretia's, taking great comfort in being in her presence again.)

That wasn't how it was supposed to happen. He was the one who was going to outlive all the rest of us.

(What Lucretia really wants is to gather Beverly into her arms and hold her close to her heart, but... she isn't sure of what Beverly will be comfortable with in the wake of this nine year gap. She doesn't move, simply lets Beverly lean against her.)

It must have come as a shock to you. When did it happen?

(It's a delicate dance they're doing with one another. Things were both easier and harder before, when they thought there'd be a definite end to this, that one of them would leave the other sooner or later. Now, there headed into a more unknown future and that makes her more careful. So while she'd love nothing more than to curl up in Lucretia's arms, she doesn't, not right now.)

... only a week ago.

(That doesn't seem right. But then, none of this seems right.)

It doesn't feel quite real yet.

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scholiast - 2018-10-01 13:29 (UTC) - Expand

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