Posted by Civilian Micah Pikelsimer (Federation Security Agent) in Tennessee, Earth - Home Sweet Home

Posted by Commander Shara Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Tennessee, Earth - Home Sweet Home

(snip)

There were a lot of things that had happened to her that had been the kinds of experiences that had proved useful in her line of work. Her life in the Delta Quadrant on Voyager had been a large one. But people often only saw the exciting parts of it, romanticizing the journey. It was easy to dismiss the real and heavy toll those seven years had had on each and every person on that ship. “You don’t know what it’s like to want so desperately to get home and not be able to. To be so far from those you love and have no way to get to them, and worse, told you have to go along with one particular path to getting home. I’m not saying they were wrong, but up until we learned about the Dominion and what they did to the rest of the Maquis back in the Alpha Quadrant, I was desperate to get back and it was slowly driving me crazy not to be able to. Through Faye I’ve learned what my absence was like for them, how devastating it was. And the worst part is we both know damn well that we can’t promise each other sh!t when it comes to actually being able to come home. And that scares me Micah. I don’t want to leave you a widow because of my work. And I don’t want to be a widow again. I don’t know how to do any of this!” She had only just surfaced as Shara Calloway. How the hell was she supposed to find her way through her new life, and be a mother, and now also be a wife? Lowered lip trembling ever so slightly, she cast her gaze out the expansive widows.

~Shara

Micah looked at her and reached over, activating the window so it slid down and away. A fresh morning breeze filled the room, the scent of the woods and water nearby faint over the aroma of the bubbles. He moved slowly to sit next to her, taking her hand in his under the hot water. He looked out over the land and trees and took a deep breath.

“Sha… you and I both know that we aren’t guaranteed f^@k all in this life except that at some point it ends. The trick is to pack as much good into that time as you can. We both have baggage… and we both have jobs that neither one of us will really admit to actually liking and being really good at. Those jobs are dangerous… but so is living. And I’ll tell you right now… if I eat it tomorrow? Today has been the best day of my life.” He looked at her and smiled even as his eyes welled up with tears. “I got to be married to the most incredible woman I have ever known. I got to call you my wife. Darlin’… I’m more proud to be your husband than I am to be a Marine. Because a few people get to call themselves that. I’m the only one who gets to be your husband. And drunk or not… I know somewhere in there you wanted to do it. ‘Cause ain’t no amount of moonshine, arguing, begging, or yelling is gonna make Shara Calloway do f^%k all she don’t want to do to begin with.” He kissed her cheek and then splashed water on his face. “Damn lavender got in there…” he mumbled.

Micah

Squeezing his hand, she leaned against him, shuffling so she could rest her head on his shoulder. “You don’t have to pretend with me. I’m not afraid of your emotions. In fact I distrust macho men who claim to never feel things deeply or think it’s weakness to show emotions. Fools, the lot of them. You’re not of them, so don’t be one,” she said softly.

“But what you said, about the moonshine not forcing me to do anything? There’s a part of me that believes that and there’s the part of me that instantly thinks of my father, who let alcohol be more important than anything else, including his family and then took out all his frustrations on the ones he claimed to love. That’s baggage I don’t often know what to do with. I thought getting myself out of there would do the trick, but even that decision wasn’t about me. It wasn’t about my safety. So… I guess I’m trying to understand the place that a drunk Shara got to that I can’t sober.”

~Shara