Chapter Text
Isabel Picard stomped her feet and shook her red curls. “Papa, do I have to? Why can’t I stay with you?” Jean-Luc sighed and pulled his thirteen-year-old daughter close. “I’m sorry, Princesse. But I can’t take you on this mission. It’s too dangerous.”
“Then why are you going?” Jean-Luc sighed. “Admiral Quinn needs his best diplomatic negotiator. That’s me.”
“Oh. But why can’t I go to La Barre and stay with Tante Marie and Oncle Robert?”
“You’ll get a better education at the Junior Academy than you would in La Barre. Besides, your aunt is due to have her baby in a few weeks, and I don’t think it would be very fun for you to live with a newborn. But Robert said you may visit on the weekends if you’d like.”
“Ok. I can’t wait for Tante Marie to have the baby! I hope it’s a girl.” Jean-Luc chuckled. “And what, Princesse, if it’s a boy?” She wrinkled her nose.
“Well...I guess that would be ok too.” Jean-Luc smiled. “That’s my girl. You don’t have to leave for another few weeks, so how about you humour your old Papa and we watch one of those silly holocartoons?”
###
“Can I go?” Wesley threw a PADD down on the table in front of his mother. “Go where?”
“Starfleet Junior Academy.”
“Isn’t that a boarding school?”
“Yeah, but it’s for gifted kids and it looks really cool and I can even work on my nanobot technology there. Please, Mom?” Beverly sighed. Her son really was clever. Too clever for the teachers on the base and they had been telling her for months that she should try to arrange for private tutors. This might be the solution....but could she separate herself from her son? She refused any assignment that she couldn’t bring Wesley along on, and even had taken him on her stint on the USS Pegasus when he was only two. She had been on Starbase 32 for the past nine years, and thought she might have a shot at the chief medical officer posting as soon as the current CMO retired. Of course, she would have to take the commander class to earn her pips and she supposed it would be easier to take on the extra workload if she didn’t have to worry about Wesley...
“Tell you what, kiddo. Leave the information with me and I’ll think about it.” Wesley’s eyes brightened. “Really, Mom?”
“Really. When is the deadline for applying?”
“Next week...”
“Wesley Robert Crusher! Why did you wait so long to ask me?”
“Uhhh,” Wesley looked at his feet. “I was afraid you’d say no.”
“I see. Well, you had better hope this doesn’t affect my decision. Now go and finish your homework before dinner.”
“Yes, Mom.”
###
Jean-Luc did his best not to cry as Isabel hugged him goodbye with tears in her eyes. “Papa, I don’t want you to go.”
“I know, Princesse. I don’t want to go either, trust me. But I will call you as often as I can, and I expect letters. You’ll have new friends in no time!”
Isabel gave her father a wary look. “Maybe. But no one wants to be friends with the smart kid of the Captain’s.”
“Here, you’ll be with other smart kids, and I bet even some kids of Admirals and other Captains. You won’t stick out, I promise, Belle.” He reached out and tapped her nose and she giggled. “I’m not allowed to go into your dormitory – no men allowed, not even fathers – so I’ll have to say goodbye to you here.”
“Ok, Papa. Papa, je t’aime.“ Jean-Luc smiled. “Je t’aime tellement Princesse.“ He kissed his daughter on her forehead. “Now go on in before your old Papa starts blubbering.”
“Bye Papa...see you soon?”
“Sooner.” He waved as his daughter entered her dormitory and sighed. It was going to be a long three months.
On the other side of the campus, Beverly Crusher was fighting back tears of her own as she hugged her son close. “Ugh, Mom! Really?”
“Sorry, Wes. You know, this will be the first time we have been apart since you were a baby. I never took an assignment unless you were with me.”
“I know, Mom. But...this place is so cool!” Beverly sighed. Teenagers. “I expect you to call me every day.”
“Mo-om!”
“Every other day?”
“Ugh, Fine. God, Mom. “ Beverly grinned and pulled her son close so she could kiss his forehead. “Mom! Come on, I’m too old for kisses.”
“Wes, you’ll never be too old for kisses from your mother.” Wesley rolled his eyes and grabbed the edge of his trunk on wheels. “I gotta go or all the good beds will be claimed. Bye, Mom!”
“Bye, Wes. I love you.” Wesley rolled his eyes again. “Yeah, I love you too, Mom.” Beverly grinned through her tears and watched Wesley walk into the boy’s dormitory. Her quarters on Starbase 32 were about to feel very empty and quiet.
###
“Hi! I’m Isabel, but everyone calls me Belle.” The boucy red-head placed her lunch tray down on the table and sat down next to Wesley. Wesley eyed her.
“That’s a nice name . My grandmother’s name is Isabel.”
“Oh neat. I think it might be my grandmother’s name too, but Papa’s grandmother’s name was Yvette Picard, not Isabel.”
“Picard?”
“Uh-huh. My Papa is Captain Jean-Luc Picard.” Wesley shot daggers at the girl. “I know who your dad is.”
“You do?” Isabel looked at the brown-haired boy inquisitively. “Did your parents serve with him?”
“You could say that.” Isabel gave Wesley a blank look, and he continued. “Your dad killed my dad.”
Isabel’s blue eyes flashed with anger. “He did not! Take it back!”
“He did and I can prove it! Ask him about Jack Crusher! I bet he never told you about him, did he?!” Isabel paled. While her father had been Captain of the Stargazer, she had been staying with her aunt and uncle in La Barre, and she remembered when she was five her father had shown up unannounced and had woke her up just to give her a hug and to tell her that he loved her. She didn’t understand at the time, but he had told her a few years ago that it had been hard losing his friend Jack.
“I....”
“Your papa,” Wesley spit out the word, “came to see me and Mom and told us Dad had died in an accident. He was Dad’s Captain. He should have saved him.”
“Oh. I...I didn’t know. I mean, I knew a friend of his had died...”
“Well, now you do. So you should just leave me alone and go eat someplace else!”
“I...Sorry.” Isabel picked up her tray and carried it over to an empty table before Wesley could see the tears in her eyes.
When Jean-Luc called Isabel that evening, she decided against telling him about the boy she had met. She didn’t even know the boy’s name, only that he was Jack Crusher’s son, and didn’t want to upset her father. Instead, she applied some make-up one of the older girls lent her to hide her red-rimmed eyes.
“Hi, Papa.”
“Princesse. Settling in well?” Jean-Luc eyed his daughter through the monitor. There was no familiar sparkle in her eyes, and he wondered if he should have refused the assignment to stay home with his daughter. He had hated when he had left her behind in La Barre when she was younger, but he couldn’t have her on the Stargazer. The destruction of the Stargazer had almost been a blessing in disguise because he had been able to have Isabel with him at Starfleet Command for the past eight years. He was hoping to get the Captaincy for one of the new Galaxy class ships that would be permitting family to live on board.
“It’s fine. My roommates are cool. “
“You don’t look happy.”
“I’m fine, Papa. Honest.” Jean-Luc shook his head. There was something she wasn’t telling him. “Have you started classes yet?”
“Not yet, Papa. We have to take aptitude tests for placement, but I’ve already talked to the teachers in the science building. I told them how I want to be a doctor and develop nanobot technology to assist with surgery and they’re really interested. I guess there’s another kid who wants to develop nanobots, so they think we might be able to work together on a special project instead of regular classes.” Isabel’s eyes lit up as she continued to babble on to her father about nanobot technology and medicine and all sort of things that flew right over Jean-Luc’s head but made him smile and think of Isabel’s mother, his ex-wife.
“You remind me so much of your mother.” Isabel smiled. It wasn’t often her father brought up her mother. She didn’t even know where her mother was or if she was alive. She just knew her parents had an argument when she was six months old and her Papa had left with her.
“Thanks, Papa. Papa, I gotta go. We only have one comm and the other girls are waiting their turn.”
“Ok, Princesse. je t’aime” Jean-Luc smiled and kissed his fingers before waving them at the monitor. “je t’aime tellement, Papa.”
Jean-Luc ended the call and sat back at his desk and thought about Isabel’s mother for the first time in many years. She had been...the best thing that had happened to him. He saw so much of his ex-wife in his daughter every day, and it wouldn’t be long before his daughter grew up into the beauty that her mother was. Jean-Luc regretted what happened between them. It was so long ago, he didn’t even remember who had been mad at who first, but he had shown up in La Barre with six-month-old Isabel and his brother and sister-in-law had taken him in and taken care of Isabel when he had to return to the Stargazer after his leave had run out. “Enough thinking about the past, Johnny. You can’t go back in time and change things. You agreed to no contact.” He sighed and pushed back from his desk. A cup of tea, and a book sounded like a good idea. His quarters on board the Malvern were sparse, but accommodating.
###
“Hey, Wesley! You have a call. It’s your mommy....” Wesley rolled his eyes. His mother had been calling him every other day and the other boys in the dorm had started making fun of him for it. Wesley had tried to explain that it was only him and his mom since his dad died when he was little, but his roommates continued to make fun of him.
“Mom, Again? We just spoke day before yesterday!”
“I know, Wesley. I can’t help it. I miss you. And I worry about you.” Wesley rolled his eyes. “I’m fine, Mom. I don’t have anything new to tell you.”
“Oh. How did the testing go?” Wesley grinned. “Tested out of almost everything. “
“That’s my boy. You really take after your father, you know that? He was brilliant. Though more of an astrophysist than an engineer.”
“Thanks, Mom. Oh, Mom! I do have something really cool to tell you. I talked to Robotics about my nanobots project and they want me to work with another student interested in nanobot technology. This is going to be so cool!” Beverly smiled at her son’s enthusiasm, but had a pang of guilt that she missed him and wished he was back with her on Starbase 32. “That’s great, Wes. I’m really proud of you.” Wesley beamed at his mother.
“Cool. Mom, I gotta go. Do me a favour? Wait more than a day before you call me again? Please? It’s kinda ruining my reputation.” Beverly laughed. “Sure, Kiddo. Can you at least tell your mom you love her?”
“Mo-om!” Wesley rolled his eyes. “Love you, Mom.”
“Love you too, Wes. Have a good night.”
###
All Starfleet Junior Academy students were required to wear a uniform. The uniforms were the same as Starfleet Academy, with black shoulders and the main body denoting which area you were specialising in. Each student was also issued a communications badge featuring the traditional Starfleet logo with a SJA imprinted across it. Isabel looked at herself in the mirror and grinned. She was wearing a blue uniform for the science branch and had a pale blue labcoat she had found in one of her father’s boxes in the attic in La Barre. She didn’t know where the coat had come from, and neither had her aunt and uncle, but they had told her she could have it. She thought it was perfect for a scientist/doctor as the coat had pockets to keep things in. Once she reached the lab, she would be assigned a tricorder for her own use and she would keep it in her lap coat pocket instead of using one of those pockets that clipped to her trousers. She had her roommate snap a holopic and she sent it to her father before she picked up her satchel and headed for the lab.
Isabel was surprised when she entered the lab and saw a boy wearing Engineering gold sitting at one of the tables with his back to the door. “Am I late?” The instructor and the boy turned to look at her.
“It’s you!”
“Oh no, what are you doing here?” The instructor looked between the two Junior Cadets and grinned. “So you know each other? Great! You’ll be working together on your nanobots project.”
“I..what?!”
“No. I can’t possibly.”
The instructor held up his hand. “You are working together and you will, if either of you expect to make it into Starfleet Academy.” Isabel and Wesley both sighed. Neither one of them wanted to disappoint their parent and Isabel knew a medical degree from Starfleet Medial Academy was the best medical degree in the Federation.
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
“Right. I can tell you two are going to get along famously. So, before we start, I think the two of you had better spend some time together and get over whatever this animosity is you have for each other. Why don’t you two talk and get to know each other a bit better?” Wesley glanced over at Isabel. “Hey, my mom has a labcoat like that. Where did you find that?”
“In the attic at my aunt and uncle’s house.”
“Oh. Cool.”
“So...Engineering?” Wesley grinned. “Yeah. My dad was in Astrophysics and my mom is a Doctor. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like astrophysics, but I’m really interested in engineering. Or maybe Command. I’m not entirely sure yet. You? Science, right?”
“Medicine, actually. I’m hoping to get into Starfleet Academy and then Starfleet Medical Academy. “
“Cool.” The two lapsed into silence, having run out of things to say to each other. Their instructor clapped his hands. “Right. I think you two are dismissed. I will rearrange your schedules and inform you by this afternoon of your new schedules. For now, I want you both to report to study hall.”
The Junior Cadets nodded and picked up their bags. As they went out of the room, Wesley grumbled. “This sucks.”
“Yeah, it sure does.”
###
“Ugh, what do you mean, you want the Nanobots to perform delicate surgery? They’re for repairing ship and computer components you can’t easily reach.” Wesley glared at Isabel.
“No. They’re for medical use. Can you imagine programming a nanobot to repair a torn liver? Or to fix a hole in a heart? Unblock a blocked artery? Nanobots are perfect for medicine.” Isabel glared back.
“That’s what surgery is for. I thought you wanted to be a doctor?”
“I agree, but what if you had to perform the surgery on a baby? Or on an adult who is too weak to undergo surgery? Just inject a few pre-programmed nanobots and boom! Fixed.” Wesley rolled his eyes.
“You can’t use robots to fix people.”
“Why not? People have mechanical limbs and organs. Why not use mechanics to fix them?”
“People don’t have mechanical organs.” Wesley retorted.
“They do,” Isabel spoke softly. “My Papa . He.....he has an artificial heart.”
“Why didn’t they clone a heart for him?”
“I don’t know. I think it was an emergency because he got stabbed by a Nausiccan.” Wesley’s eyes went wide. “Your father got into a fight with a Nasicaan?” Isabel nodded. “Wicked.”
“So you see, having programmable nanobots could help if he had a problem with his heart – you could send in the nanobots like a camera on a scope to see what the problem was and then use them to fix it.”
“I still don’t think that’s right. Nanobots are computers. They belong repairing ships and computers.”
Their fight went on and on, each more passionate than the other until their instructor stepped in. “That’s enough! Now, I’ve watched the two of you interact for two weeks so far an all you do is fight with each other like a pair of siblings.”
“Ew.”
“Gross.” Mr Eggio tried to conceal his eye roll. “If you’re going to act like siblings, you’re going to live like siblings.”
“Sir?”
“That’s right. We’re all moving into a suite together. If you’re not sleeping in your room or in the bathroom, I expect the two of you to be together. You will eat together, attend class together, study together, and have your recreational activities together. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, Sir.” Both Junior Cadets mumbled.
###
The Junior Cadets had been sharing a schedule for two weeks so far, and it wasn’t going well. The first few days they had shared the suite, neither one had spoken to the other. They studied in silence and ate their dinner in silence, and watched the holoscreen in silence. They only spoke to each other when they were in their lab, and then it was usually to argue the same argument they had been fighting before over the use of nanobots. Wesley finally said something to Isabel when he had to pick up one of her PADDs off the sofa in their common area.
“Can’t you keep your things in your own room?”
“I was reading that out here.”
“Well, keep it in your room when you’re not. I don’t want to have to look at your stuff. And Ugh, Can’t you hang up your lab coat?”
“I don’t know, can you put your smelly shoes on the shoe rack instead of the middle of the floor where I trip over them?” Wesley smirked. It had been kind of funny when she tripped.
“Sorry.”
“No you’re not. I could have broken something!”
“Stop being so dramatic.”
“I am not!
“You are too!”
“Ugh, you’re so hard to live with!” Isabel stomped off to her bedroom and flung herself on the bed, crying. “We’re not supposed to lock ourselves in our bedrooms. I’m going to tell Mister Eggio!”
“I don’t care!” Isabel cried through her closed door. She sat up and picked up her PADD and asked it to connect her to the USS Malvern and then to connect her to Captain Picard.
“Papa!” Isabel sniffed.
“Princesse? Are you alright?” Jean-Luc looked at his tear-stained daughter with concern.
“I don’t want to stay here anymore. Can I please go to La Barre and stay with Tante Marie and Oncle Robert?” Jean-Luc softly smiled at his daughter. “I’m sorry. Tante Marie was put on bed rest – the pregnancy has been rough on her. She wouldn’t be able to look after you. And besides, I thought you were getting excellent practice for being at the Academy? What about your special nanobot project?”
Isabel sniffed. “My lab partner is mean to me.”
“Well, tell her to stop!”
“He, Papa. My partner is a boy. His name is W-“
“Maybe he likes you,” Jean-Luc grinned at his daughter. “When I was your age, I didn’t know how to get a girl’s attention. I can remember doing stupid things to get her attention.” Isabel wrinkled her nose. “Eww. Papa. No. He’s just mean.”
“Have you talked with your teachers about it?” She nodded. “They said we had to learn to get along.”
“Wise words. You know, if you want to become a doctor on a spaceship, you might have to work with people you don’t like. I know I do occasionally as Captain.”
“What do you do?”
“Well, I try to avoid them and only deal with them in professional situations.” Isabel frowned. She had tried to ignore him for the past two weeks except in lab and it wasn’t working. “Papa, I’ve been ignoring him and it doesn’t work. Pleeeeaaassseeee can I go to La Barre? Or hey, can I go stay with Uncle Wally?”
Jean-Luc laughed. “Princesse, Uncle Wally is on the Horatio. He just got assigned there.”
“Oh. This sucks.”
“Isabel...”
“Sorry, Papa.”
“Mom, my lab partner is really annoying. It’s not fair Mister Eggio is making us live together.” Beverly laughed at her son. “What did you do?”
“Me? Nothing. I mean...I might have fought with her a lot. But she wants to use the nanobots for surgery and other medical things and not for repairing computers.” Beverly raised her eyebrows. “Sounds like my kind of girl.”
“Ugh. You probably would like her. She even wears one of those blue lab coats like you do.”
“I hadn’t realised those became standard.”
“They’re not, but Belle - that’s her name – found it in her aunt and uncle’s attic.”
“Ah, I see. Wesley, sweetheart, do you like Bella?” Wesley shrugged. “Not really. I mean, she’s kind of a pain. She yelled at me for leaving my boots in the common room but then yesterday I tripped on her tap shoes.”
“Tap shoes?”
“Yeah. She takes tap and ballet. I guess she was really good where she used to live because she got special permission to go off campus for her dance class. I went with her last time because Mister Eggio made me. It was boring.”
“Hey, your mother used to tap dance.” Wesley rolled his eyes. “I know, Mom. I haven’t forgotten The Dancing Doctor. Hey – Belle wants to be a doctor. I might have to start calling her that.”
“Sounds like you like her if you want to tease her.”
“Ew. Mom. No. Gross.” Beverly chuckled, secretly relieved that her thirteen-year-old son hadn’t yet discovered girls. “Alright, sweetheart. I’m sorry, I have to go. But I’ll call you in a few days. Try to be nice to...what was her name? Bella? I know it’s hard for you, but maybe try to look at it from her perspective. Maybe she lost a relative to a procedure or disease that could have been saved by nanobots. Perhaps there’s a way you both can use your nanobot project for what you want. It’s not like there are any rules against using something in two departments. I mean, we all use tricorders. We use a medical tricorder, but Engineering have tricorders calibrated differently, and even away team missions take tricorders to scan and record. Think about it.”
“Ok, Mom.”
“I love you sweetheart.” Beverly blew a kiss at the monitor. “Love you too, Mom.”
Both teenagers tried to be nicer to each other, but the bickering continued. Mister Eggio was starting to lose his patience with his two prize students. It was a month into the semester, and while they were making progress on their nanobot technology, they still constantly threw little barbs at each other and at least one per day one of them threw something at the other and stormed out of the lab.
Their fighting was even worse when they were back in their suite as everything the other did was annoying or wrong. Mister Eggio had finally had it.
“Are you two sure you aren’t related?” Isabel had scrunched up her face at that comment. “Eww. I don’t want to be related to him.”
“Ugh, I’m not related to that know-it-all. Although...”
“What.” Isabel said through clenched teeth. “You kinda look like my mom when you’re angry. But it’s probably because she has red hair, too.”
“Oh. Well, you know. You kinda look like my Papa if I squint a little.”
“My father died when I was five. I told you, his name was Jack Crusher and your father killed him.”
“I TOLD YOU TAKE THAT BACK! MY PAPA DID NOT KILL YOURS!” Isabel was screaming with her hands on her hips and tears streaming down her face. Her father was not a murderer, no matter what Wesley Crusher said.
“Look, I bet you can find the old log files for the Stargazer. Why don’t you take a break and go to the library together. Then, you can settle this.” Isabel glared at her instructor. “Are you taking Wesley’s side? Do you think my father is a murderer?!” Mister Eggio patted the young girl’s arm. “I’m not taking sides at all, Belle. But this isn’t the first time the two of you have fought like this, and I think reading the old reports or listening to them, whichever format they are in, might help to clear up the accident that killed Wesley’s father.”
“Fine, but my papa did not murder his.”
The two teenagers strode into the library and headed straight to one of the archive computers. Isabel let Wesley take the lead and sat in the chair next to him.
“Computer: Display logs for the USS Stargazer, 2354.”
“Please specify a stardate range.”
“Ugh. Hang on, let me calculate this.....” Wesley pulled a PADD and a stylus towards him and started making calculations.
“Computer: Display logs for the USS Stargazer, stardate range 31710.60 to 31718.43.”
“Compiling. Stand by.” Text and audio file numbers began scrolling across the screen and Wesley inserted a data chip and transferred the files onto the chip. “Should we take this to our lounge? We can read it on the large monitor in there.”
“Alright.” Isabel slung her bag over her shoulder and followed Wesley.
Wesley inserted the Data chip and soon the room filled with the words of the captain of the Stargazer, Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Isabel smiled listening to her father’s rich voice.
"Captain’s Log
It is with deepest regret and sadness I must report the death of Second Officer, Lieutenant Commander Jack Crusher. Jack died in the line of duty, saving the ship from certain explosion. We had a buildup of energy within the port-side lower nacelle, which required immediate removal. Commander Crusher and Lieutenant Joseph volunteered and against my better judgement I allowed it. The ship rocked with an explosion and by the time I went outside in my own EVA suit, Lieutenant Joseph was unconscious, and Commander Crusher was dead. I brought his body back inside and resuscitation was attempted. See Sickbay log for more information and details of both men’s injuries. I will be informing his wife, Doctor Beverly - There had been a barely audible sigh. – Doctor Beverly Crusher, currently stationed on Starbase 32. We aim to be there within the week. End Log."
Wesley frowned . His father had volunteered to go out? Why would he do that? Isabel noticed there was a personal log attached and she tapped on the personal log. Once again, her father’s voice filled the room.
"Captain’s Personal Log
I didn’t want Jack to go outside. I told him to think about Beverly and Wesley, and he had only grinned at me and reminded me that I had Isabel and I could look after Beverly and Wesley if anything happened to him. As if it was so simple. But now, Jack is dead and I....
Tomorrow we arrive at Starbase 32, and I have to face my ex-wife and son and tell her that her second husband and step-father to Wesley is dead. I haven’t seen Wesley or Beverly since the divorce five years ago, and I don’t know how I will handle it. I’ve often thought about Wesley, especially when I look at my own sweet Isabel and I wonder if Beverly and I made the right choice to separate them when they were younger-"
Isabel abruptly stopped the playback and turned to look at Wesley. Both had looks of horror mixed with surprise on their faces.
“S...Siblings?”