Posted by Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Wedding Bells- Neutral Territory

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Counter-Intelligence Officer) in Wedding Bells- Neutral Territory

(snip)

Taleel bowed her head to Hammor with a warm and appreciative smile. Lahala gave him a warm smile. “We’re honoured to be here,” Taleel said.

Shara met Daggum’s gaze with a knowing one of her own.

“Ahh, yes, the new husband,” Gavin said with a grin. He was a man with a deep set smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes. And that smile remained, though it shifted as he finally fully took Shara in. “Shar.” A punctuated name for a complicated moment.

“Gav,” she said, trying to suss out where they stood. She had no idea and it had caused more than one sleepless night in the last couple of weeks.

But her internal questions were answered when Gavin closed the distance and his arms slipped around his sister, all but breathing words into her ear. “You’re real.”

Shara had gone stiff, but at those terribly insufficient words, her arms relaxed and wrapped around him. Closing her eyes, she was all too aware of how public this moment was and he would have no idea how hard it was for her. Or maybe he did. It was anyone’s guess.

“I’m still mad at you,” Gavin said, giving her a tight squeeze, before he stepped back, releasing her. Taleel watched on knowingly, while their daughter’s curiosity spoke volumes.

“I know,” Shara said, forcing her voice to be above a whisper. “And it probably won’t improve over the next few minutes, but there is someone with Micah that you’re about to meet.”

“Oh?” Gavin said.

“Curtis said you head back to Midos often to look in on the old man. I haven’t been able to go back myself.”

“Well, he’s getting on in years and his health isn’t… wait, Curtis told you that? Since when do you talk to Curtis?”

Shara inhaled deeply. “Since I called him to talk to him about our daughter.”

“Your… he- wait, what?” Gavin stepped back, eyes wide.

“I can tell you the whole story but right now we need to go meet up with them and I thought it best to drop the surprise here. For the record, she and I have only just connected.”

Gavin shook his head, feet carrying him away from the group. “How old is she?”

“You know,” Shara said, eyes dipping to the deck.

“How old?!”

“Forty-nine.”

Lahala drew in a small gasp. “But you had to have been really young.”

Shara nodded, swallowing. “Sixteen. I had just turned seventeen when I gave her up for adoption.”

Gavin marched back to the group, slowing down as he approached his sister. “You should have told us, told me. I get why you didn’t want to say anything to Dad, but you could have told me.”

Could’ve, would’ve, should’ve. In many ways it didn’t matter anymore. What was done was done. “I made the best decision I could under the circumstances. Was it perfect? No. But I couldn’t stay there and you know that! Something terrible would have happened, and at least by removing my presence I removed something that antagonized him. Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me it was terrible for you after I left. I hated leaving you there. But you were safer with him than I was. Was I wrong?”

Moisture pooled in the corners of his eyes. “I wish to everything in the universe it was otherwise, but no, you’re not wrong.”

Relief. That was the only thing she could feel right now. All these years and she had never known if she had made the situation better or worse by fleeing Midos. Shara blew out a breath.

“We can definitely talk about this more, but I’ve love to meet this other niece of ours. What’s her name?” Tahala said.

Thank goodness for the rest of them, for Daggum being here. It would be too easy to feel ganged up on right now. “Nadine. Nadine Wells.”

“Well I for one am excited to meet all this family finally,” Lahala said, a bright smile slipping onto her face.

Shara nodded and looked at Daggum. “Meet you in the Garden?”

~Shara & Co.

Daggum grinned at Shara. “Actually, why don’t the ladies and I see to to their things while you and the Captain… catch up? I’m sure they wouldn’t mind, and I can show them around the ship while the bags are moved.” He extended an arm to Taleel. “My future mother-in-law is hesitant to speak in front of those she just met, and if my intuition is correct, there is a lot to say. Shall we?”

Damn him, Shara thought.

Taleel beamed knowingly, entirely aware of the tensions and mixed-feelings in the bay. “Why yes, that sounds like a lovely plan,” she said, taking his arm. Lahala grinned and nodded in agreement. Taleel shot her husband a look as Daggum led her out.

Looking back over his shoulder he smirked at Shara. ” This is for the ambush outside the hotel 9n our first date! I told you I’d get you back!” and his laugh could be heard until they disappeared into the corridor and the doors slid shut.

Hammor

Shara chuckled and shook her head even as her stomach twisted. It was just her and Gavin now and silence filled the shuttlebay long after the others had departed. She didn’t know what to say and it seemed like he didn’t either. But eventually one of them needed to say something. “There are a lot of things I regret, but giving birth to my two girls isn’t one of them. They are the things I got right, even if I couldn’t raise my first child myself. I named her Lila in my head, but I think Nadine suits her well too.”

The tears still hovered on the edges of his eyes. “I still can’t believe that you had a baby with Curtis. Did he know?”

Shara inhaled slowly, letting her chest expand. “I told him I was pregnant, but we were both kids and he said he wasn’t ready to be a father and he’d support whatever decision I made. I left Midos soon after and we hadn’t spoken until recently. He didn’t know I went ahead with the pregnancy until then. He was surprised, but said he had always wondered. He might not have said it, but I think he was secretly glad I went through with it.”

“Did Edward know?” Gavin said.

Shara shook her head. “It was a closed adoption and she wouldn’t be able to look for me until she turned twenty and I wasn’t legally allowed to reach out. It just made no sense to say anything since the ball was always in her court.”

“And she reached out recently? I mean, shit Shar, even I with a Captain’s clearance couldn’t even tell for sure if you were alive or not. I could read between the lines enough to know that you were somehow working with Intelligence, but as far as anyone could tell you didn’t exist.”

She wrapped her arms tightly around herself. “In many ways I didn’t,” she said softly. “Not until recently.”

“What changed?”

Shara lifted her head and met his gaze. “Faye. Long story short, she was in trouble and I was undercover. Our paths crossed but she wasn’t aware it was me. When she was back safely in Federation space, I…” She shook her head and tilted her head upward, fighting back tears for a moment. “I’ve not been okay, Gav.” She returned her gaze to him. “I have PTSD. I had to do do a lot of work to get to a place where I was okay enough to be in her life again. And it’s complicated how Nadine found me. She had a little external help that was not my own.”

“I’m sorry,” he said and Shara could tell it was genuine.

For a moment a sister considered her brother and a brother considered his sister. They were two ships lost on the open seas who finally crossed paths again. They were not the kids they had been, they knew little of what the other had been through except for what they might each have been able to access on a personnel record (entirely lopsided that that access was). Inhaling deeply, Shara gestured her head to the door. “Let’s walk shall we?”

Gavin nodded and smiled, one that touched the crevices at the corners of her eyes. Lovely eyes that smiled true. “Let’s.”

And thus the siblings continued their reunion, no bloodshed in sight.

[to be continued…]

~Shara & Gavin