Posted by Lieutenant Commander Dr. Solomon Kane (Chief Science Officer/Research & Development) in Guest Quarters - Family Woes Part II

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Alexis Bonner (Assistant Chief Medical Officer) in Guest Quarters - Family Woes Part II

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Dr. Solomon Kane (Chief Science Officer/Research & Development) in Guest Quarters - Family Woes Part II
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
“Not that you’d care, of course. Because her telling what she had done would just make you more jealous.” Kane said to Allison. “Really… answer me this: When did you decide that you hated living in your daughter’s shadow?”

Kane

Anthony was quite interested in the answer himself. Alexis wasn’t sure she was even curious, but why not. What could be worse than how things were now?

Allison looked at Anthony, and shook her head in disgust. He always to Alexis’ side, even when she was wrong. Oh he would tell Alexis she was wrong but then he would have to spend all that time helping her figure out ‘a better way.’

“When she had to be right and ‘fix’ my brownies.” They even sold better in the shop and soon everyone somehow knew 3 year old Alexis cooked better than her mother.

Alexis was surprised and the shock showed on her face. That was actually one of her best memories with her mother. She got up and walked out of the office. In his ear, Solomon heard her voice. “I’m okay…no I’m not really but I’ll be right back. I need something for my mind to do.”. Then she returned with some little device and a PaDD, sat down and soon had a 3D image of a DNA strand projected from the device and was manipulating it.

Bonner

Kane didn’t bother Alexis, he knew she was processing everything the best way for her mind to do such things. But he glared at Allison and said “Just.. wow. Do you even hear yourself? Brownies. You gave up loving your daughter… for brownies. You know, just when I think you can’t get any worse… you go and set the bar that much higher.” and he shook his head. “You know… where I grew up… we kids were bought and sold like your damn baked goods. But I would trade you for ten of those flesh peddlers. At least they were honest about their lack of soul.”

Kane

“Allison…Allison look at me.” Anthony turned in his seat, but his face was pale and slightly green around the edges. “She was three!”

“Three and in a week she had managed to recreate the recipe I had been trying to do the same with for years. Soon no one came in for anything but whatever item ‘Alexis had fixed’ and that only lasted months before she moved on to the next interest.”

Alexis didn’t even look up from what she was doing. “It must be driving you…oh what was that word, daddy, that she always used?”

“Bonkers.”

“Right, driving you bonkers that Solomon’s biscuits are better than yours, and he wasn’t even trying.” Then she turned the little device upside down, leaned her head back and raised the 3D image over her head to look at it. Yes Alexis was being off on purpose. “So let me get this right…I wanted more cream cheese in each bite, YOU suggested we try to tweak the recipe, You called Daddy in to help, THEN when we all 3 working together got a result we liked, you took it to the store and sold it. It made rave reviews, but YOU did all that, told everyone it was me and it’s some how my fault?” Alexis peeked at her mother but Allison didn’t answer. “Yeah okay even I know that piece of emotional logic is screwy.”

Bonner

“It’s not screwy. It’s just the excuse she needed.” Kane said. He looked at Allison and said “I get it now. I do. In your head, your daughter was an accessory. A final brush stroke on the painting of your ‘perfect’ life. But Alexis didn’t fit that way. She is too unique. Too true to herself. She didn’t reflect your picturesque ideal. And you just can’t stand that.”

Kane

Alexis sighed and stopped messing with the image a moment. “I’m done with this. She is not going to apologize, she doesn’t see it as wrong, I am and always will be a disappointment in her eyes.” She gave her full focus to staring at her mother. “I will not forgive you either. Instead I will forgive myself for letting your opinion matter so much to me. Then I shall forgive myself for holding onto that little girl who so desperately wanted her mother’s approval. But I will not forgive you. You had the care and responsibility of me, your child. And I was a child even if I was smart. You failed miserably. You were the adult and you were the parents. The responsibility was yours and you chose your actions and opinions.” Then she went back to her model, unwinding the strand and looking at it long hand.

Bonner

Kane looked at Anthony. “I know this is hard for you. And I know how hard you have tried to make this work. I can hear it Lex’s voice when she talks about you. She is proud of you… proud to be your daughter. And I will echo her, here… you are always welcome with us. Anytime. For as long as you want. Because you care for her. You respect her. And you are proud of her. Not for what she should be… but for who she is.” He then looked at Allison. “I’m not one to try and manipulate people. I hate those kinda games… almost as much as I hate people that play them. Almost. But I’m not gonna make him choose between his wife and his daughter. So I’m just gonna say this… and I really want you to think about this. Lex and I, we want to have him in our lives. And we will. You, though… you we don’t want. So how you two work that out is between you two. And however Anthony decides is the best way to handle it, we will back him up. You don’t dictate how people feel or what they do anymore. So tread really lightly.”

Kane

Allison shrugged, like it didn’t matter, a movement Solomon had seen Alexis make. “It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to ask Anthony to choose. Anthony will always choose Alexis over me.”

Anthony sighed and stood grabbing Allison’s hand and tugging her up to standing. “No Allison, I didn’t choose Alexis over you, or you over Alexis. I’m sorry you saw it like that. I chose our family over any one person. Somewhere along the way we forgot to grow together.” He looked at Kane. “See you are right, Kane. We do get to chose our family, the people that we want to surround ourselves with, to an extent. Allison and I chose each other, and we chose to have a child, but we didn’t get to chose who that child would be.” He smiled at Alexis still working with the model. “I wouldn’t change her, I wouldn’t wish her to be anything but who she is, but I didn’t get to chose who our child would be. Alexis chose you, and you will be part of our family because I choose to accept her choice, but without her,” he grinned wryly, “There is no telling if you and I would have chosen to be family. But family is a lot of work. Even if we always have the best of intentions, it doesn’t always work out. Each person,” he looked at Allison, “have their own perceptions and desires and needs. You and Alexis, next year, the next 3 years, 5 years, in the next decade you won’t be the same people you are today. Yes you can chose to no longer have someone in your family, and that’s okay and sometimes necessary. I made a promise to Allison, though, when I married her, and I made a promise to Alexis the day we decided to try for a baby. I’m not ready to give up on those promises, yet.” Someone else could argue that he’d already given it enough time, but Anthony hadn’t really been trying to make it better, just not let it get worse. He needed, for himself, time to decide if he had done everything he could.

He walked over to Alexis and took the model from her and set it on desk and pulled her to her feet. “You want me to stay, so I will, but I don’t think I will see you until tomorrow, okay?” He hugged Alexis then kissed her forehead. Alexis nodded and hugged him back. Anthony offered his hand to Kane. “The food was outstanding, thank you.” The thanks encompassed more than the food.

Kane took the offered hand and shook it.

He put an arm around Allison’s shoulders, and it was very much a ‘you will come with me’ gesture and not an affectionate one. Allison opened her mouth and Anthony squeezed her shoulders. “Not now. One thing that has not changed about you is when you’re upset you speak out of wounded pride and not from your head or your heart. Save it, think about it. Now, come along. We’re going to go do something we haven’t done in years - we’re going to actually talk and have a long and painful conversation.” The door slid closed behind them.

Bonner

Kane watched them leave and then he sighed loudly. “He’s a good guy, your dad. But he is a fool, too. She won’t change. She can’t. Because her whole identity is predicated on jealously and pride. And she’d have to give up both of those. And she can’t. Because when if she did, her entire world and reality would dissolve before her eyes.” and he looked at her. “And no one chooses that. Its more pain than anyone can conciously take on.” and he looked back at the door. “And even if she has the courage to take that road, she doesn’t have the willpower to make it through it. It would break her, and she’d never recover.”

Kane

Alexis was fiddling with the model again and sighed. “He’s not a fool, Solomon. He doesn’t expect her to change nor does he think he can make her change. He’s not going to have that conversation with her in front of others. It’s a matter between them.” She shrugged, “They never fought in front of me. I knew they fought, he didn’t hide that they did, but he never did in front of others.” She set the little DNA model down and looked up at him. Alexis once told Solomon she understood how she felt and why. How she reacted, even how others reacted. Her mind just didn’t process it in the same way or the same order. But this whole encounter had been nothing but emotions and people and her mind was, for now, firmly along that track. “I’m not good with people, and I very well may be wrong, but I’ve known my father a long time. I don’t know why he stayed with her all these years, but I suspect he’s trying to determine if he can continue to stay, to allow my mother her fantasy world, if he can do it. And if he can’t, how to handle other factors. My father knows what you and I both know - my mother is now privy to highly classified secrets. She’ll keep them, for now, because they don’t fit into her fantasy, right?”

“Yep, but-” Kane tried to say bit stopped as Lex continued to speak.

“You say she would never choose to change. I wouldn’t know where to begin to speculate on that, but if by some chance she did try and it broke her…what would stop her from telling those secrets, even if by accident? It wouldn’t effect just her, but you and I as well. You can tell him all you want it’s not his responsibility, or his place, or that he’s a fool or coward or untrained to take care of it. Or…more likely I have absolutely no idea what I’m speculating about and it’s just wishful thinking, that my father isn’t a fool.”

Bonner

Kane looked at Lex with his ‘Think it through’ look. “Keep going. Take it to the end. Add in all the definitive that you and I know are a fact. One: She knows things. Two: She is delusional and petty to the point of harming others, at least mentally and emotionally. Three: She is manipulative. Four: She is in a state of denial. Five: Her ability to maintain that denial of reality is threatened like never before. Five: She could very well use her knowledge of things to try and inflict pain and trouble on those she sees as a threat. Those five things we know, right?”

Alexis gave him her ‘Are we stating the obvious now?’ look. At each point he listed the connections,which she had already made, even if she didn’t like them, shimmered sickeningly across her mental holodisplay. “Right.”

“But we also something that she is either ignoring or ignorant of.” Kane added quietly. “We know the kind of bastards who want what she now knows kept very very quiet. We know the lengths they will go to make damn certain those secrets stay secret. We, and your dad to a certain extent I think, know just how tenuous Allison’s position is. If she opens her mouth?” and he took a deep breath and shook his head while leaning back.

“I doubt your dad would have to make the choice about whether to stay with her or not. It’ll be made for him. And if Allison thinks she’s being treated unfair now?!” and he snorted derisively. “She has no idea the very real hell that will fall on her if she decides she’s smarter and more entitled than the likes of Temporal Investigations and Section 31… and whoever else is wanting this kept quiet.”

Kane

“That’s my point. I am sure my father is aware of the extent of her tenuousness if not the specifics. I also think he is more worried about the damage it would cause me and you than her.” She didn’t like this, not at all, and it was way beyond her comfort level. “And what if she is aware, Solomon? She kept Soulis’ secret for years. He scared her enough to keep her quiet, or…” Alexis closed her eyes shaking her head a bit. She knew her mother didn’t love her, but could she hate Alexis that much? Alexis didn’t want to consider that, who would? But she knew you couldn’t dismiss conclusions simply because you didn’t like them. All possibilities had to be considered until evidence and data rules them out. “Or she could have willingly helped him. Would Soulis chose a willing partner rather than one controlled by fear?”

Bonner