(no subject)

[dancingmd]

Who: Beverly Crusher
Broadcast: No
Action: Blue Fish
When: May 10 (Mother's Day for anyone who celebrates it)

[Having had her fill of the casino scene for now, Beverly is back on board the Blue Fish, hard at work in their sickbay. She quickly discovered that she is unable to download the Starfleet database from her newly-obtained tricorder to the ship's computers, so she has been painstakingly typing up some of the more important information. Right now, she's going back over some of her own medical logs from the Enterprise, editing typos and adding comments where necessary. It's a slow process, but the more projects she has to work on, the better. Today is a day she'd rather not think too much about.

Unfortunately for her, Atroma is not going to allow that to happen.

Hi, Mom! says a bright, chipper voice. A voice she would recognize anywhere, the most important voice in the world to her.

She stands abruptly, knocking her chair over in the process. Where is his voice coming from? Did he... is he really here? A momentary surge of hope flows through her.]

Wesley?

[He continues to speak, Sorry I haven't written in a while. Things have been so crazy at the Academy lately. We got a new member of the Nova Squadron today, her name is Sito Jaxa and she's from Bajor! She's got a pretty cute nose...

Beverly gasps, feeling as if someone's just stabbed her in the heart and twisted the knife. This is only a recording, and an old one at that, before the incident with the Squadron, before Sito... scrambling around the room, she finds the tricorder where she left it sitting on a nearby table. A small hologram of Wesley is being projected above it as he talks. For a solid minute or two, she simply stares at the hologram, not really comprehending his words.

Anyway, I just wanted to wish you a happy Mother's Day! I miss you! His smile is so wide, so happy, and then the hologram shuts off. Beverly picks up the tricorder and scrolls through the messages. There they all are, every single letter he ever sent her while he was away, the videos she sent back of planets she had visited, holoimages of the two of them together on the Enterprise. She is absolutely certain these weren't here when she first got the tricorder out of the voucher machine. Selecting another letter at random, she hits play. There's no hologram this time, but he's excited: it was his first day of zero-g training. She picks up her fallen chair and drags it over to the table so she can sit and just listen.

Suddenly, it all gets to be too much and she begins to cry. Once she starts, she finds she can't stop, so she just lets it go and falls forward, elbows on the table and head in her hands, desperately hoping no one will see her like this.]

Comments

[dancingmd]

[Don't worry, she won't force him to talk about it, not until he's ready.]

It's called a tricorder and it's basically a multi-purpose tool we use all the time in Starfleet. It can be used as a scanner, database, GPS, recorder... lots of different things. I think Atroma must have blocked some of its usual functions, for example, its universal translator, but so far it's worked perfectly fine.

[alwayscomeback]

[He'll be peering at it curiously, his augment helpfully making sense of something he'd struggle with for months on his own. ]

That has to be the most helpful thing I have ever seen.

[dancingmd]

[She nods.] It really is. I don't think I truly appreciated how dependent on it I was until I didn't have one any more. I mean, in some ways that was probably a good thing to function without it for a while, but I am glad to have it back.

[Even if Atroma is using it to fuck with her.]

[alwayscomeback]

I can get that, I felt the same way about my boomerang.

[He chuckles, shaking his head.]

I know it's not exactly the same thing, but it's an important part of me. It's got me out of a lotta scrapes.

[dancingmd]

[She nods and is about to say something in response, when she thinks of something else instead.]

This reminds me, Allen got Timcanpy, I got the tricorder, a friend of mine got a book.... did you get anything from your world out of the voucher machines at the casino?

[alwayscomeback]

[She's going to regret asking him this. He nods, happily. ]

Yeah! I got my satchel! I got it when we went to the Earth Kingdom.

[dancingmd]

Your satchel? Is that... an item that's really important to you then?

[She doesn't mean to sound so skeptical, she's just trying to figure out Atroma's logic here.]

[alwayscomeback]

I wouldn't say it's important. It's not like my sword or my boomerang or my hawk. But it's still mine.

[dancingmd]

[Oh god, if Sokka had been given his hawk... she is very thankful it was just a satchel.]

Hmm. I have been wondering why we've been getting the things we have. The reason behind the tricorder, well... [That sadness from earlier crosses her face again] that's obvious now.

[alwayscomeback]

[His smile fades.]

Maybe they're just tossing whatever they can at us? To see what'll get an emotional reaction.

[dancingmd]

[She sighs and gives a small, ironic salute upwards, to wherever their audience is watching them from.]

Well, mission accomplished, Atroma.

[alwayscomeback]

[Sokka gives a soft, annoyed huff. ]

Yeah, good job, Jerks.

[dancingmd]

[She smiles fondly at Sokka. Atroma has done one good thing at least, in introducing her to this crew.]

Hey, I'm going to be all right, okay? Today was... well, today was not a good day, but I'll get through it.

[alwayscomeback]

[Aww, Beverly, that gets a soft smile. ]

I'm glad. And we always got each other's backs, here. I promise.

[dancingmd]

Good. If I'm going to be here... well, I'm glad it's with you and this crew. Thank you, Sokka, really. You've been a great help today.

[alwayscomeback]

[He gives a soft chuckle.]

Aww, shucks. You're gonna make me blush. I just wanna make sure you're all okay.

[dancingmd]

Good. If you're going to be Wesley for the day, then it's my job as a mom to embarrass you as much as possible.

[alwayscomeback]

I'll be prepared for any and all embarrassment, then.

[dancingmd]

[She grins.]

I don't know if you can be prepared. I've had lots of practice you know.

[alwayscomeback]

It'll be a trail by fire for me, then. That, I can do.

[dancingmd]

Hmm... I'll have to give it some thought. I could talk about how cute you and Suki are together but that's probably too obvious, too easy, right?

[alwayscomeback]

[He makes a soft tch sound, waving his hands dismissively.]

Oh please, that's just common knowledge.

[dancingmd]

[She grins.]

It's too bad I don't have any baby pictures to show her.

[alwayscomeback]

She'd probably think I'm adorable, anyway. Because I was.

...Am.

[dancingmd]

See, now you're just asking for me to pinch your cheeks.

Fortunately for you, I'm not that old yet.