LtCmdr Connor Dewitt - The Deed
Tim
((Connor’s and Ayemet’s Quarters, USS Khitomer))
She closed her eyes briefly and turned toward the stars outside, the silence between them deepening. Connor followed her gaze, watching how the starlight outlined her profile. She looked impossibly far away, even standing just across the room.
C. Dewitt: I don’t know how my grandparents did it, to be honest. But apparently they raised a child on a starship. We should at least be able to make time for us and him. ::pause:: I’ll talk to Lera and Ginny to get every other day off during the evenings.
A. Dewitt: :Sadly once more: That would be nice, but before you do that there’s somethings you should know. I haven’t be honest with you.
His heart hitched, a quiet alarm going off in the back of his mind. He straightened slightly, not defensive, but alert.
C. Dewitt: What do you mean? What haven’t you told me?
She knew what such a sentence would cause in him and no doubt that she could feel it. She didn’t answer right away and it intensified the fear the Chief Engineer felt. It was a feeling that he was so familiar with. The fear of loss that he thought he had buried somewhere.
Ayemet turned toward the small safe, one they only rarely opened. Connor watched in confusion as she placed her eye to the scanner. A beam swept across her iris with a soft buzz, and within seconds, the safe clicked open.
She reached inside, pulling out an envelope. Not a PADD. Not a data crystal. A literal, physical envelope. She walked back to him and placed it carefully in his hands. Connor carefully turned it around and read Ayemet’s and his name on the front in a font that suited a celebration.
C. Dewitt: What is it?
A.Dewitt: It’s a wedding gift from my mother.
Connor blinked. Of all the things he had expected, that wasn’t on the list. His heart stopped racing and the blood pressure decreased.
C. Dewitt: Your mother? Why didn’t you tell me about this?
She stepped closer, took his free hand in hers, and kissed it softly. He didn’t pull away. Couldn’t, really. The gesture disarmed him in ways words never could.
A.Dewitt: It’s a land deed. A pretty big piece of land actually.
Connor’s eyebrows shot up in disbelief. He gave a breathless, stunned laugh, not mocking, just genuinely overwhelmed as he opened the envelope and retrieved what looked like an ancient deed with his and Ayemet’s name in calligraphy along with what looked like a set of coordinates to him. None that he recognized from Earth.
C. Dewitt: Land? As in grass and bugs and sunburns? Our land? ::looking at the deed again:: This is real…
Connor’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. He laughed, a bit wild-eyed.
A. Dewitt: Response
Connor’s thoughts fired like overloaded relays, one idea chasing the next with no time to breathe in between.
C. Dewitt: We can built an actual house, Ayemet… A shed, just for all the tools. We could grow our own tomatoes. Or, no wait, cucumbers… ::standing up, starting to walk:: Or bees… Bees, Ayemet. Is there Bajoran honey? Can you keep bees? Do you want bees? Maybe a pond with actual frogs… You could hear them during summer nights. We could hang a hammock. Maybe a porch spring and… ::looking at little Quentin:: We might need a fence of some kind. Probably a wooden one would be best. Of course you gotta paint it every couple of years…
A. Dewitt: Response
C. Dewitt: Where is it? The piece of land?
A. Dewitt: Response
And with Ayemet’s response, something in Connor swelled. More than he thought was even left in him. The excitement did not fade; it deepened, folding into something softer, more powerful. His eyes turned wet before he even realized it, and he quickly blinked it away, not quite ready to admit to tears over a patch of land. But the Lake… the Lake was everything. It wasn’t just terrain, it was them. Every argument, every late-night repair rant, every silent understanding they never quite had words for. It all shimmered in that water.
He paused mid-ramble, eyes narrowing slightly as the weight of it sank in — like his whole heart had suddenly caught up to the blueprint racing through his brain.
C. Dewitt: Wait a second… You had this the whole time? Like… This has been in this quarters since the wedding?
And that’s when it hit him. Not in a sharp, dramatic way, but with the quiet understanding that slips in through the cracks. She had not kept it from him because she wanted to make it a secret or she did not trust him. She had kept it because somewhere along the line he had stopped making space for this kind of future.
He let out a slow breath and looked down at the deed again, suddenly aware of how distant it had become.
C. Dewitt: You didn’t show me because we are living a different life…
A. Dewitt: Response
C. Dewitt: It’s a future I want to have, Ayemet… With you… ::pause:: Do you want to move there… now?
A. Dewitt: Response
TAG/TBCChief Engineer & Second Officer
USS Khitomer
A239901CD3