Chapter Text
Two years later....
Jean-Luc awoke to the sound of giggles followed by a 'shhh'. He pretended to remain sleeping when the small body belonging to his step-son jumped on the bed.
"Happy birthday Papa!!"
"Oof. Thanks Wes."
"Mommy said you're fifty now. That's old!!" Jean-Luc pretended to be indignant. "Excuse me?"
"Fifty is a big number. It's half of 100, twice of twenty-five, five times ten, and..." Wesley scrunched up his face to do calculations, "six point two five times my age."
"Ah, but you're not eight for another two weeks."
"Seven point one four."
"Good lad." From near the bed, a tiny voice spoke. "Pup pup. Birfdee. Wessy up!"
Wesley got off the bed and helped his half-sister, Jean-Luc's adopted granddaughter, onto the bed. Katie clapped her hands. "Birfdee!!"
"It's Papa's birthday. Remember what we practiced?" Wesley leaned close to whisper in the two-year-old's ear. She grinned and climbed onto Jean-Luc's chest. "Hap E birfdee Pup Pup!"
"Thank you." Jean-Luc glanced over at the doorway where his adopted adult daughter, Annisyn, stood. "Well, come on. It's pile everyone into the bed day." Annisyn blushed slightly. She had only been part of the family since a month before her daughter had been born and still felt awkward during family moments. Behind her, Beverly nudged the younger woman forward. "Come on. Can't let the children have all the fun."
Annisyn grinned and sat on the bed. "Happy birthday, Papa." She leaned over and kissed his cheek.
Beverly carried a PADD in her hand as she walked towards the bed. She got in and Katie automatically snuggled into her side. "Morning, Katie."
"Maw maw birfdee?"
"No, only Pup Pup's. But shall we give him his present?"
"I get a present too? Excellent." Beverly leaned over Katie and gave him a lingering kiss. She pressed the PADD into his hands. "Happy birthday, Papa."
Jean-Luc studied the grainy black and white image on the display. In small letters at the top were the words 'Beverly Picard / Jean-Luc Picard / March 2356'. He gasped. "Are we?" Beverly slowly nodded.
Jean-Luc wasted no time pulling Beverly on top of him and kissed her deeply.
"Yuck," Wesley made a face. Annisyn laughed. "Come on, let's leave Papa and Mom alone so they can celebrate Papa's birthday."
The couple didn't even notice when the door slid shut behind the children.
###
Jean-Luc stepped off the turbolift onto the bridge, only slightly later than he was scheduled to. “Birthday boy on bridge!”
“Very funny, Number One. Report.”
“Not much. We’re still surveying the planet and its moons.”
“Pretty routine mapping mission then.” Jean-Luc watched as Walker fingered his pocket. “Wal? What’s with the pocket bulge?”
“Oh! Uh...” Walker pulled out a ring box from his pocket and handed it to Jean-Luc. Jean-Luc smirked. “Walker, I’m flattered, but my heart belongs to Beverly.”
“It’s for Abby.”
“Yes, I gather. When were you planning on asking her?”
“I don’t know. I thought about tonight, but I forgot about....” He trailed off. “Nevermind.” Jean-Luc eyed his best friend. “Forgot about what?”
“Err...nothing?”
“Walker.” Walker threw up his hands. “Fine. Bev wanted to throw a small party for you tonight. But it’s a surprise, so act surprised.” Jean-Luc groaned. “I hate being the centre of attention.”
“We know. That’s why we didn’t tell you about the party. But come on, Johnny. Fifty is kinda a big deal.” Jean-Luc shook his head. “Yes, as my son informed me. It’s halfway to one hundred.” Walker chuckled. “That’s our boy.”
“Quite.”
“And hey, you get to do it four whole months before me!” Jean-Luc rolled his eyes at his friend. “I suppose you expect us to throw you a party?”
Walker was in the middle of replying when the ship suddenly lurched. “What the devil?” Jean-Luc turned to his helmsman.
“Sir...we’re being fired on.”
“By who? We were told by Starfleet this was an unchartered area of the quadrant.”
“Unknown, Sir. Should I fire back?”
“Absolutely. Go to yellow alert.”
The ship rocked with another hit. “Shields down to 70 percent.” Jean-Luc leaned forward in his seat. “Hail them.”
“No response, Sir. Shields down to 50 percent.”
“Merde.”
“You can say that again.” Walker sat in the chair next to Jean-Luc and glanced over at his friend, who nodded. “Go to Red Alert.”
Throughout the ship, the lights flashed to red. In Sickbay, this meant stabilizing existing patients and preparing for casualties. Beverly slung a medkit over her shoulder and shoved a tricorder and two hyposprays into the pockets on her lab coat just in case she was required to attend an emergency. She hoped Wesley wasn’t too scared with the other children.
Abigail Yugen was trying to keep the children in her care calm. Katie was the youngest at two, and then there was a five-year-old, A six-year-old also named Katie, Wesley, and the ten-year-old twins of the new counsellor. Fortunately, the loud claxon that accompanied a Red Alert wasn’t going off in the school room, but the lights were flashing and it was scaring the younger children. Wesley whimpered slightly, but tried to put on a brave face like Malachi and Morris, but his face crumpled when he felt the ship tilt once more.
“Sir...shields are at fifteen percent.”
“Start evacuation procedures on all non-essential personnel.” Walker breathed a sigh of relief. Abigail, along with the children, were considered “Non-essential” and would board a small shuttle pod and be shot out into space for safety. Once the crisis had passed, the Stargazer would be able to track the pod’s homing beacon to pick up the children and their teacher, safe and sound.
Jean-Luc pressed the communications panel on his armrest. “Captain Picard to Doctor Picard.”
“Yes, Jean-Luc?”
“Beverly, we’re evacuating non-essential personnel. I think you should go to an escape pod.”
“Jean-Luc, I’m a doctor. You need me.”
“I need you to be safe.”
“Jean-Luc....fine. Look, we have a few patients to evacuate then I’ll head for the yacht, alright?”
“If that’s the best you can do.”
“It is. And I’ll swing past the school room and get Wes and Katie. Picard out.” Jean-Luc sighed as Beverly ended the connection.
“What’s going on, Johnny? You wouldn’t usually be so concerned about Beverly. Unless she....oh my god, she is, isn’t she?” Jean-Luc grinned at his best friend. “She told me this morning as my birthday present.” Walker nudged his Captain. “I bet that’s not all she gave you this morning...” The ship lurched once more and Walker was forced to abandon teasing his best friend.
“Shields....five percent.”
“Right.” Jean-Luc tapped the ship-wide communicator. “This is the Captain speaking. All hands, abandon ship. I repeat, all hands abandon ship. Report to your nearest shuttle or pod immediately. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill. All hands abandon ship.” He turned to his bridge crew. “That includes all of you.”
“But....Sir...we can’t leave you.”
“Nonsense. I can easily access the yacht from the bridge. It’s my responsibility as Captain to ensure my entire crew evacuates. Go.”
“Yes, Sir.” The bridge crew began to file out towards their assigned shuttles and Jean-Luc turned to Walker. “You too, Wally.”
“Nuh-uh. You go. You’re a father...going to have another one...go, Johnny.”
“Walker....”
“I’ll oversee the evacuation and meet you in the yacht.” Jean-Luc reached over and patted Walker’s arm. “Alright. But keep me patched in to the comm. I want to know everything!” Jean-Luc hurried to the hatch where he would gain access into his yacht and he was relieved to find Beverly, Wesley, and Katie already on board. He kissed Beverly and took Katie from her. “Abigail and Ann?”
“Abby is with the other children, and Ann should be evacuating with the rest of stellar cartography. Where’s Wally?”
“He insisted on being the last man on the ship. He said I had to think of my family....”
“Is he listening right now?” Jean-Luc nodded. Beverly took a deep breath. “Walker Keel...you better get your ass in this yacht pronto.”
“Just making sure everyone else is off first and all the other shuttles and pods have left.”
“Alright. We’ll see you soon.” Beverly held onto Wesley’s hand and led him over to one of the special children’s seats that had been installed in the Captain’s Yacht. She belted him in before she took Katie back from Jean-Luc and strapped her into a smaller seat.
“Mommy, I forgot Mister Wiggles.” Beverly frowned. “We can’t go back, Wes. We’ll just have to....get a new one.”
“But Mister Wiggles is my favourite!”
“I know, baby, I know. How about I replicate you a teddy for now?”
Annisyn was listening in to the conversation as she had just tapped in to the bridge feed to make sure Katie had been evacuated when she turned around and sprinted towards her quarters. She could grab the bear for Wes and be back at her escape pod in no time. She rounded a corner and ran into the five-year-old girl from the school who was crying. Annisyn bent down to the girl’s height. “Madyson, right?” The little girl nodded. “Why aren’t you with Miss Abigail and the other children?”
“Got lost.” The girl let out a sniff. Annisyn was on the same corridor as an escape pod, so she quickly pushed the child inside the single use pod and belted her in. She pressed the button to activate the pod and yanked her hand out before the door sealed shut. They would be able to find the child by using the homing device later.
She sprinted back to the quarters she shared with her family and ran into Wesley’s room and scooped up the favoured bear before dashing back out. She ran through smoky corridors looking for an escape pod, but every bay was empty. She wondered if she could make it to the yacht, since she knew it wouldn’t depart until the very last second and she stumbled her way down the corridors towards the bridge, coughing as she inhaled the black smoke that threatened to drown out her vision. Barely coherent, she managed to find an escape pod and hurried inside, but she passed out before she had a chance to seal the door.
Walker checked the monitor. “Alright, Captain. Abandoning the bridge...now.” Walker ran to the hatch that led to the Yacht and sealed it behind him. He could hear Jean-Luc recording the last message that would ever be recorded for the Stargazer before he jettisoned the ‘black box’ that would be filled with the logs and account of what happened. Walker slipped into the co-pilot’s seat.
“Everyone’s off. All pods jettisoned. Now let’s blow this joint.”
“Right. Set rendezvous coordinates to relay to all shuttles and pods. Use....use our last location before we entered this system. We can be there in a few hours with our limited warp capabilities, and it’s a good place to gather the troops and shuffle people around.”
“Got it. Coordinates programmed and sent.”
“Engage.”