All Souls' Day
Posted on Nov 05, 2014 @ 5:58pm by Ambassador Xana Bonviva
Edited on on Nov 05, 2014 @ 5:58pm
Mission: Birth Of An Empire
=/\=
All Souls Day
=/\=
Location: USS PHOENIX
Scene: Corridor -> Bonviva/Crichton Quarters
SD: 2.141102.1413
Dahlia ran home fast and furious, her homework PADD tucked firmly under her arm; her legs that were starting to grow a little too long for her were finally becoming of use as she making longer strides than her baby brother could keep up with.
“Dee! Wait up!”
The Bajoran/Bolian/Human girl ignored him and kept running. She wanted to outrun everything. She ran past the stares of sparsely corridor, filled with the kids who were also coming out Mr. Bomba’s class. She was enjoying school, but not today. No, today class was not what she wanted.
Ben tried to keep up with his sister, but couldn’t. “Dee! Get back here!”
Erika didn’t know what was on the PADD that upset Dahlia but knew that she couldn’t outrun it. Kneeling down to Benito she said, “Come on, climb up.” Once Ben scampered onto her back, and hugged her neck, the Bajoran/Human girl secured her brother and went running after the little sister she initially didn’t want 6 years ago but now was just as protective of; whatever it was that set Dahlia off both Ben and Erika weren’t going to let her face this on her own.
Dahlia made the quarters on her own, running past their mother who was standing outside talking to their neighbors. Xana paused mid-sentenced to watch her daughter run all-out into the quarters with her siblings in hot pursuit.
It took a few moments for Xana extricate herself from the conversation she was having to make her way, to find her son sitting outside the girls’ room. Frowning he was sitting cross-legged eating some dried kinja berries. “They won’t let me in,” Benito whined.
Xana knelt down and nodded. “Sisters do that,” she admitted.
“You did that to Uncle Horatio?” he asked.
“Yeah I did,” she admitted.
“Meanie,” Benito pouted.
Xana chuckled. Nodding her head to the room she said, “What’s going on?” When Benito shrugged, the mother sighed and knocked on the door. “Girls?”
[[I understand!]] Erika said.
[[No you don’t!]] Dahlia yelled. [[No one understands me!]]
[[Be like that then,]] Erika said. Then there was much stomping and Erika came to the bedroom door. “Oh you’re here.” Passing the homework PADD to Xana she said, “Here.”
Pointing to Benito, Xana said, “Here.”
Erika nodded and tickled Ben. “Come on, let’s get into trouble.”
Smiling at the two of them, Xana ducked into the girls’ room. Two bunkbeds had been set up, and Dahlia currently was on the top one. Leaning up so she could see her 9 year old, Xana asked, “What’s wrong?”
The 9 year old shrugged. “You see it.”
“Your homework?” Xana asked. When Dahlia nodded, Xana looked down at the PADD. “Two starships leave two stations at the same time, the stations are equidistant from each other. Assuming they are traveling at the same light-speed, what are they serving for dessert?” There was a long pause before the Bolian/Human admitted, “You know maybe I should be paying more attention to your homework.”
Dahlia groaned and said, “Next question, Mom.”
The older azure woman shook her head and scrolled down to the next question. “Modern History.” Looking over at her daughter she said, “Ok, first of all that’s just an oxymoronic subject--”
The 9 year old rolled her golden eyes, “MOM!”
Xana shook her head, “Well it *is*.” Going back to the PADD she continued reading, “Modern History offers some fascinating figures for us to study. Please choose one of the following individuals from the Second Dominion War for a project of your choosing. Figures include: Captain Ysdris, Admiral Horace Granger, Lt. Jor, and--”
Seeing the next name on the list the mother looked up at the 9 year old and covered her mouth.
“Or Commander Eugene McInnis,” Dahlia supplied. “My father is a *history* topic. Mom, everyone made fun of me for it. And they all said it would be so easy for me, cause I could just do a report on my dad. Cause it’s *my dad*. But I can’t--”
As the tears started to form in Dahlia’s eyes and her throat began to close, Xana opened her arms. She waited for her daughter to come down from her bunk and held her close before finishing the sentence for her daughter. “You can’t do the project because you don’t remember him, is that it, principessa?” As Dahlia sobbed against her shirt Xana held her daughter until the tears stopped, or at least slowed down.
At some point they stopped standing in the middle of the room and sat on the floor. “I’m sorry,” Dahlia whispered.
“Why?” Xana asked as she rested her cheek on her daughter’s head.
“Cause I don’t remember him,” Dahlia said.
“You were a baby,” the mother said, “I knew a long time ago you would never remember him.”
Dahlia sat next to her mother and looked up at her mother; she knew intellectually that aside from the other obviously blue skin they were very different looking females. “I look like him don’t I?”
“Yeah you do,” Xana nodded. Fingering her daughter’s fine blonde hair and studying her face she said, “Yes, you have your father’s hair, eyes and nose. After you were born I used to say you were Gene McInnis in a dress.”
“Mom!” Dahlia groaned. As Xana laughed, the young girl looked at her and asked tentatively, “What else?”
“Hmm? LIke what?”
“Did...did my dad want me?”
Xana gave her a puzzled look. “Why would you ask that?” As Dahlia kept looking at her, Xana told her the story about how Xana tried (with not much luck) to tell Gene McInnis she was expecting their baby. “Well eventually your father figured it out and you know what he did?”
“What?” Dahlia asked with a small laugh.
Cupping her daughter’s face in her hands Xana smiled. “He was so happy he was going to be a father, he started yelling and jumping up and down.” Pushing back the long blonde hair that was perpetually in her daughter’s beautiful golden eyes she said, “Your father may have loved me first, but he loved you best. Please don’t ever doubt that.”
There was a long quiet pause in the room as Dahlia sat there puzzling out her emotions and Xana gave her that space. Finally the girl blurted out, “You don’t talk about him much.”
“I used to, all the time,” Xana sighed. “Again, you were young.” Rubbing her face she said, “It was part of the mourning process I suppose.”
“Then you got married to Jake?” Dahlia asked.
“We did date for a while,” Xana corrected. Looking at Dahlia she said, “But if you want to talk about your dad, Jake wouldn’t mind. He knew your dad--”
“WHAT?” Dahlia asked scandalized.
Xana laughed at that. “Yes, Jake knew your dad.”
“But I wasn’t talking about my dad because I didn’t want to hurt Jake,” Dahlia whined.
Xana stopped laughing at that. Tapping her daughter’s nose at that she said, “You and Jake are very close, and I think that’s sweet. But Jake knows you’re Gene’s daughter and if you want to ask questions about your dad or talk about your dad, that’s ok.”
“O-kay,” Dahlia said skeptically as if Xana started spontaneously sprouting spots.
The mother rolled her own violet eyes. “Or if you want to talk about your dad, and I’m not around, there are others who also knew your dad.”
Dahlia nibbled her lip. “Major Thytos. She said she served with Dad.”
Xana nodded at that. “She cleaned him out at poker a few times. Your father had a terrible poker face, so that wasn’t too hard,” the Bolian/Human smiled.
“Who else?”
“Who else has a terrible poker face?” Xana asked confusedly. “Are we having poker night? Well that could be fun--”
“Moom! Who else knew dad?”
“Oh,” the mother replied. Thinking back on it she admitted, “Captain Kane. Your father spoke highly of him. And your father had excellent instincts on these matters. Came with being a Counselor.”
Dahlia considered that. “Got it.” Looking unsure, “Mom, if I didn’t want to do my project on Dad...would that be ok too? Just talk to people about Dad? Would they still talk to me?”
“Yes, honey I think so,” Xana nodded.
Dahlia got up then and walked to the door. Turning around she looked at her mother. “Mom? Can I ask a question?”
“Sure.”
“Do you still think about Dad?” Dahlia asked.
Xana looked at her daughter -- Gene McInnis in a dress; the little girl who drank strawberry lemonade. Who gave deep belly laughs when something deeply amused her. Xana thought about her own political life, how she was nudged into that life because one night her first husband told her that he didn’t think she was going to last much longer in SF because she had her own moral code that didn’t match the Fleet’s but maybe it could be better served for the Federation’s overall. But in that moment looking into those fierce golden eyes that demanded a clear right from wrong, and knowing of another individual that only knew how to understand clear rights from wrongs with little room for grays, Xana knew the answer was simple.
“Honey, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about Gene McInnis in someway,” Xana said truthfully.
=/\=
NRPG: So every year that I write for FRPG for Xana and Dahlia I’ve tried to do something for them in remembering Gene McInnis. With today being “All Souls’ Day” I thought it appropriate.
=/\=
Sarah Albertini-Bond
as
Xana Bonviva
