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

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
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Micah stood, open mouthed, for almost a full minute. Finally, pushing through the shock, he knelt down beside his wife and moved the guitar and put his arm around her.

“Easy, hun… easy… shhhhhhh…” he said softly, gently rocking her with his own body. He didn’t press, didn’t talk… he just let her cry. Finally he said “And here I thought waking up married was gonna be the show-stopper for the day. Way to up the ante, hun.” and he half-smiled at her.

Micah

Shara laughed through her tears, and that simple act of humour allowed her to catch her breath and calm herself a bit. “Wasn’t planned, I swear.”

Resting against Micah, her breath was still catching but it slowly was returning to normal. “It shouldn’t even matter. I mean, no one knows. No one has ever known. Not even Edward. And I’m legally not allowed to reach out, even if I knew where she is or even who she is. But then all this talk of families and weddings. I just…” She shook her head.

Looking up at Micah, sadness filled the space where the tears had been. “I was sixteen, Micah. Living with my twelve year old brother and my emotionally abusive alcoholic father. My boyfriend didn’t want a baby and I didn’t know what to do. So I ran away. I left Midos and didn’t look back. I told myself that after I had the baby and gave it up for adoption that I would go back. But… I couldn’t. It was too much, too hard. I never went back. Gavin’s never really forgiven me for that and I don’t blame him.”

“I tried,” she whispered. “I tried to be her mom. I made it a whole month, but… I couldn’t do it. It was too much, too hard. I had no one, anywhere, so… I gave her up. Closed adoption. I have no legal status as her mother and I am not allowed access to her record. If she wanted to find out who I was, she was allowed when she turned twenty. I’m sixty-four. You do the math.” She looked over the vista, and the huge varied land that seemed to reflect her ever battered heart. She had spoken truly that day Micah asked her if she had regrets. She didn’t regret giving up the baby she had named in her head Lila, but that babe had left a hole in her she could never quite fill.

~Shara

Micah looked out over his… their… land. “Pasts… they’re a bitch.” he said flatly. “Aw, hun… Im sorry. You… you didn’t deserve that. You or her. And from whay you’ve said… well, I at least think you did right by her. Sixteen… thats no age to raise a baby. Not on your own. You gave that babe the best shot you could, Sha. I know you did… ‘cause thats who you are. And you don’t carry hurt like that around fifty years if you didn’t care, or if you tossed in the towel before you had not other choice.” He hugged her close and looked out over the mountains. He was silent for a long time. Then, as if discussing the weather he said-

“Want me to pull the file? You cant… but I sure as hell can.”

Micah

Could she do it? Could she let him? Sure, she could have gotten anyone else to do so over the years, but there had been reasons not to. Really good ones too! In her particular work, her value as an asset was in a small part her lack of connections that could be used against her or anyone else. The lone wolf. But that wasn’t her anymore and she had people, family, in her life again.

She shook her head a little. “I don’t know. I honestly don’t. But there’s a piece of the puzzle that maybe tips the balance. See, when I gave birth to her and right through to my marriage to Edward and having Faye I went by my mother’s maiden name, Costa. I didn’t wanted to be associated with my father. But after we learned about the Maquis and once it finally hit me that Faye and Edward were gone I changed my name. But I was in the Delta Quadrant and then when we got home I accepted a commission and was recruited. But I was Shara Calloway now. I was no longer the Shara Costa that gave birth to that girl. And I knew that when I changed my name I was going to make it drastically harder for her to find me if she wanted to, if it was even possible for her to. I took Edward’s name, but it cost me something.” And she started crying again. It wasn’t quite an answer to his question, but just another variable to add to the pile.

~Shara

“Ok… so how about this. Let me look and see if she has looked for you. If she has, you know there’s an interest on her end. If she hasn’t, well… then that’s as good an answer as any.” He nudged her with a shoulder and said “Right… wife?” and smiled.

Micah

She hadn’t known before this morning that she’d tell him this huge secret of hers, but a part of her had known on the Manhattan when he’d invited her to Tennessee to share coffee on his land and unburden her soul that all her secrets were safe with him. She was safe with him.

Shifting her position so she was sitting more comfortably on the rock, Shara reached for her guitar, the zipper gliding around the circumference of the case. Pulling out the guitar she had had for almost twenty years, that had survived the Delta Quadrant, she began to tune. “I always knew I could be at peace with it all if I knew she’d been okay. If Lila had had a good life.” Shara turned her gaze on Micah, tuning by ear and memory. “That’s been the hardest part. Watching Faye struggle I’ve always felt like I’d done wrong by my girls somehow. It’s not rational or even based in reality, but I hated seeing her go through all that. And to think even for a second that my other girl had had just as rough a go at it, well, it tore me up on the regular.” A secret burden she couldn’t share with anyone until now.

“So… okay. Look for me. Don’t tell me when or anything like that. Find out if she wanted to know who I was and I guess we’ll take it from there.” And thus she began to pick out a tune, an old one that she had first started to hum in her head that first terribly difficult month with Lila, a song she’d created just for her. She had made one for Faye too, later, songs she hummed that had no name other than the child she associated it with. That they might not even recognize except for long held memories from the cradle.

~Shara

Micah listened, felt her leaning against him… this was where he was happy. Here, under the sun and sky, listening to his wife play her guitar and hum a song he didn’t know as the wind blew softly against them… home. Love. Family. All of those words took on a whole new meaning for him at that moment.

The rest of the day passed slowly. They spent hours on the mountain drinking coffee, talking, eating sandwiches, and ‘other things’ newlyweds tend to do when left alone with no one around for miles.. It was near dusk when they finally walked back into the cabin. Micah made dinner out of leftover stew and bread, along with some bacon and eggs. After dinner, they listened to a few more records before heading upstairs; both of them exhausted from the emotions and exertions of the day. As they lay down to sleep, Micah looked at Sha and smiled. “I love you, wife-of-mine.”

It was in the wee hours of the morning when Micah finally moved out of bed. He was silent… years of training had made that almost second nature. He went downstairs and took a PaDD from the desk and then went outside and sat on a chair on the porch. As the light from the display lit up his face, a look of deep concentration took hold. Entering in his FedSec credentials, he had access to almost every record in the Federation… “Perks ‘a the job…” he mumbled to himself. He began inputting search parameters.

=/\= Search: Federation Colonial Birth Database: Location <all> Parents: Mother: Shara Costa Father: None Listed Child: Female DOB: Unknown Current Age: 47-49: Execute Search Outside Specific Parameters If NoResults: Allowed margin of error: 10%: Begin Search =/\=

Micah leaned back and waited. It took several minutes, but finally there was a soft chirp. Twenty-seven potential results returned. Micah nodded, that was a good sign if you consider the trillions of beings in the Federation. He began cross referencing what he knew of Shara’s travels with the records, and an alert popped up of a records request for ‘Shara from Voyager’ by one of the twenty-seven results. Micah thought Well, that can’t just be a coincidence, now can it? and pulled the request and the record of the person requesting it; one Nadine Wells, adopted daughter of Kennedy and Preston Wells formerly of Alpha Centauri, now residing on Earth, North America, Oregon, Portland. Divorced, no living children. One son, killed in MVA, age 7.

As the record came up, Micah’s eyes widened and then he sat back heavily. “No… it really can’t be that easy, can it? Decades of hurt and I type for ten minutes and there you go?” The face on the file looked like Sha. Almost the spitting image of her. He looked out at the stars and shook his head. “Universe, you have a really crappy sense of humor sometimes.” and he began to read the file in depth, running every conceivable search to ensure the person was not only the Sha’a long lost daughter… but also that she was safe. As in… not a weapon set up to lure Sha into a trap. After two hours, and even calling in favor from a Fleet Medical officer that owed him a favor to run a genetic comparison, Micah knew three things: First, this person wasn’t a threat to anyone except the local school board where she was a teacher and an outspoken supporter of the students and faculty. Two, that she was without a doubt Sha’s daughter… Faye’s half-sister… Daggum’s soon-to-be sister-in-law… and Micah’s step-daughter. And three, that this woman had spent almost thirty years looking for Sha, and she started on her twentieth birthday.He leaned back and looked at the sky, the very faintest glimmer of light starting to appear on the horizon. Micah stared for a long time, and then sent a message to an associate at FedSec, sent the file to Vanessa, and wiped the PaDD before putting it back in the desk drawer. He then went upstairs and went back to bed.

A few hours later, there was the beeping of a comm station. Micah groaned and rolled over and said =/\=Computer, answer the damn comms already! =/\= and there was a chirp and a voice came over the house speakers. =/\= Pik, you forget the briefing today? =/\= Micah cursed loudly and said =/\= I’m on vacation! =/\= There was a chuckle and the voice said =/\= Vacation is secondary to Federation security. Get your ass in here so you can brief these people on the Shadow Syndicate. =/\= =/\= Fine. But you’re adding three days to my down time! =/\= There was a lugh and the voice said =/\= See you in two hours. =/\= and the comm disconnected. Micah looked over at Sha and said “Can I just retire? We can stay here in bed. I promise to make sure you stay tired. =/\= and he grinned.

Micah