Dangling Threads - Part Eight

Posted on Tue Jul 21st, 2020 @ 4:52pm by Division Admiral Talon Yeager & Lieutenant Commander Monique Deepshadow & Lieutenant Samantha "Sammy" Yeager & Lieutenant Melody McKnight-Yamaguchi & Post Captain Davijaan "Oddball" Yeager

Mission: Mission 109: The Travelers Path
Location: Various Locations - Starbase Vanguard
Timeline: 1930Hrs - September 23rd, 2393

Melody sighed. "All this time. I had believed that it was me," she admitted. "I was the reason you and dad never ended up together."

"Why would you think that Melody?" Talon inquired. "I wasn't ready for a relationship with anyone. So you can blame me for it..."

Sammy dismissed the statement with a wave of her hand. "She has been blaming you, its why you two fight so easily and so often. As I stated earlier, I can only sit here and admire your casual brutality on the subject Melody..."

Melody sighed. "I've never really been sure of where I fit in... I didn't fit in with dad or with you, mom..." she explained. "Dad had lots of other kids, some liked me and others... Well you know about Iason. Then there was you, mom, who was alone..." she paused. "It was confusing at times... and irritating at other times..."

"Your dad was confusing to me too. He was willing to give me time to decide what I wanted and a lot was happening at that time... The Dominion War, the Second Borg attack... and all sorts of other fascinating events..." Talon explained. "It was all really quite distracting for me, especially as a single parent." Talon paused. "Then there was... him."

"Yes... Jerome... What did you ever see in him anyway?" Melody asked.

"Honestly, I am not quite sure... I know early on, he was great, he challenged me... Give me something else to interest me... You were heading off to the academy shortly, as you had made your interests clear and that's why I helped you, I decided to help rather than hinder, that is what a mother is supposed to do... I didn't expect to become pregnant with the twins... I think that's when it started... The change in Jerome's personality, I mean... He was too busy competing with his brother Devon for number one in everything. Who had the hooter, more capable wife, who was stronger, who was... Well, you get the idea..."

"Jerome didn't want children... But... You did." Sammy commented quietly.

"I did. That's how I ended with Othello and Perea." Talon explained. "I think... Part knew, even then... That things were changing, that his wife who enjoyed sports or doing anything physical was suddenly weighed down with children, he wanted to wait until later in life when I was an old woman and then have two and no more..."

Melody decided that now was a good chance to ask the one question she had been dying to ask about for years. "How did Marie come along?"

Talon regarded Melody with a knowing look. "Your dad and I would see each other every once in a while, but we did have a relationship going on as well. When Jerome got mean, I turned to Orthos for support, except he had moved on... I waited too long, I was unfair to him... and to you. That sin will haunt me for the rest of time, even after I die." she sighed. "I had the best man in my life up to this point and I didn't walk away once or twice... But over a dozen times, he knew I was having issues with Jerome and he helped me as best as he could... Jerome wanted rid of Noel, he cited that she was a threat to his kids... He made no mention of you or me on the court documents, first, they went to live with his folks... Then when he realized that wasn't enough, he had her shipped away into state care." Talon sucked in a lungful of air. "That's when I dropped the hammer, I initiated divorce proceedings against him... He gave me everything I wanted, but he fought me on custody of the kids... He didn't care though, he just wanted to ruin me professionally, make others think I was crazy..."

"You were on the Fe'gerran at that point..." Melody commented softly. "Why didn't you sent the twins to me?"

"Because I had to keep you out of it, Jerome would have happily shafted you too, in addition to me. That's when Orthos and I ran into each other... and he gave me a night of extremely angry sex and Marie... I gave him some peace... In that, he knew what I wanted and all my life up to that point... had been a sham... All my life's work was a mistake..." Talon snorted gently, more in amusement than anything else. "Your dad never held it against me when I told him... Heh, he forgave me for my crimes against him... Spending years, stringing him along, having sex with him infrequently, knowing he could impregnate me... Being stupid in my treatment of him, while knowing he deserved much better from me..."

Melody wasn't sure of what to think to even of what to say on the matter. "I... I don't know what to think..."

Talon knew this was coming as she regarded her eldest child. "There is nothing to say on the matter. Orthos is very aware of the mistakes I have made and he accepted them, which is more then I deserved... To be frank with you. Melody because I know you still hold it against me."

"I... I do... and I don't... If that makes any sense." Melody admitted in a quiet tone of voice.

"It does," Talon answered softly.

Sammy regarded the two women. "At least you two can work it out... Not like me and my dad..."