Old Friends, Old Loves - Part Five

Posted on Wed Nov 30th, 2022 @ 6:14am by Fleet Captain Heather Walking Bear & Commander Patricia Walking Bear & Commander Jennifer Pravdin & Lieutenant Commander Korenna Walking Bear & Colonel James "Gryphon" McTaggert

Mission: Mission 118: The Christmas from Hell
Location: Various Locations - Utgarde IV
Timeline: 1530Hrs - December 18th, 2393

James McTaggert regarded the smaller woman before him. "The Endeavour quickly realized that my father could not be healed. Despite the heroic efforts of their medics to save him. But they did stabilize him in the end but it was the radiation poisoning he had sustained thanks to a Borg plasma round that impacted near the bridge of the USS Yellowstone." he explained. "It was theta radiation." he sighed softly as he tried not to frown. "There was nothing that could be done. Medical science now can easily take care of it but not at the time."

"I'm sorry," Pravdin responded softly.

"Jen. I am not trying to elicit your pity." McTaggert explained in a soft tone of voice. "I am trying to tell you. I understand where you're coming from. Believe me, if you must believe someone. I know intimately how you feel..." he explained. "It can be a way of coping with your grief. You don't have the man who killed him so you blame yourself. Because someone must be blamed." He indicated the other people in the room. "Heather knew this when she and I were dating," McTaggert explained. "She was there. It's why we didn't have our children there and then. She wanted to help me through my own grief." He let out a soft sigh. "Your sons are in the same boat as me."

Korenna sipped her drink. "Did any of your family help you?"

"They were too busy dealing with their own pain. I was on my own." McTaggert explained. "All I had was Heather." as he suddenly smiled. "Oh. I was misguided and confused." he sighed.

Marie regarded her father in silence, as this was a different side to him than she had heard of before. Rwaren regarded the time display. "Marie. Time," she said softly.

Marie paused before she turned, snapping out of her funk she cleared her head and went back to work. "Right." the sixteen-year-old commented as she nodded to her younger cousin. "I'm going to check the pizzas. Here's how you do it," she commented. "First.-" Marie went about explaining how it worked as she opened the oven door and did a quick check. "You don't wanna keep that door open and let all the heat out," she explained. "Doing that will do damage to various dishes."

Rwaren nodded her head in understanding. She was only twelve years old and a lot younger and smaller than Marie was. "Okay," she answered simply. "It's not often you get to learn this about your dad, eh?" the young teen asked.

Marie sighed. "Yeah. I didn't know. I knew something bad had happened to grandpa but this is all new to me."

"Hey. Look at it from my point of view. Your mom and dad had each other. I had mommy and mother." Rwaren explained. "Mother had her boyfriend impregnate her and walk when she was eight months along. She was friends with mommy." she paused. "Their relationship started out of mutual need. and grew from there."

"How do you know that?" Marie inquired.

"Mommy told me." the younger teen explained with a gentle smile on her face. "Mother wasn't exactly shy about the information at hand," she added after a moment.

"Fair enough," Marie commented. "Another ten minutes then we can pull these out and then cool them off. Then we slice them and dice them." the larger teen explained for the benefit of her younger cousin.

"Sounds good to me," Rwaren answered.

Meanwhile. James McTaggert had =slowly made his way outside. Heather had let him go as she knew this was always a hard topic for him to discuss. It's why whenever it came up, he always took a moment to compose himself alone. Heather knew he would need a moment now so she gently placed a hand on her husband's shoulders.

McTaggart opened the back door and he was gone a moment later. Pravdin turned to her older sibling. "Is James alright?"

"No." came the simple but brutal answer. "James has never found it easy to talk about death. Yet, he's a marine and Admiral Jake Yamaguchi relied upon him and me for a long time between the two of us to provide various assignments. I was chief of conn and diplomatic officer and James handled marines." Heather then let out a soft sound that sounded like a cross between a moan and a wheeze. "Yet the matter of death was never far away from us."

"Oh. I had no idea." Pravdin admitted.

"That's because James never saw the need to tell you or anyone else," Heather explained. "Had the matter not come up today. You would all still be in the dark." as Heather regarded her younger sister. "I know my kids will be happy to have more family here so leave your sons with me. I can do far more for them here than you can, by keeping them with you."