driftfleet | (no subject)

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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[His smile fades.]

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

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

Well, mission accomplished, Atroma.

[Sokka gives a soft, annoyed huff. ]

Yeah, good job, Jerks.

[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.

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

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

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.

[He gives a soft chuckle.]

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

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.

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

[She grins.]

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

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

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?

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

Oh please, that's just common knowledge.

[She grins.]

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

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

...Am.

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

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

I can take a big sigh of relief at that, then.

[Beverly smiles in response, but it fades pretty quickly as she looks around the med bay. All of a sudden, she stands.]

You know, I think I really need to get out of this room for a while. I've been spending too much time in here. Why don't you show me what you've been working around on the ship? Or...

[She doesn't really know what else. Maybe take one of the shuttles out for a spin. Times like this make her acutely aware of how confined the Blue Fish is, compared to the Enterprise.]

Sure, I mean, it's all boring robotics, but I can do that.

[He at least recognises the need to get away. ]

[Her face lights up at that.]

Robotics? Oh no, I don't find that boring at all! I'd love to see what you've done!

Great! I got some really nifty things on the go.

[And off they head! ROBOTS!!! ]