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"I have found the man of your dreams."
The bed jiggles under Winona as Katrina drops into it, a toothy grin accompanying her declaration.
"Hm?"
"Tall, broad shouldered," she describes, "Built like a Norse god, really, but— soft. With eyes that really see you."
"He was at the party?"
"And his hands—" Kat continues, ignoring the question. "Well, he knows what to do with his hands." Her eyes twinkle. "Exactly what to do."
Wait. Winona finally looks up from her PADD to take in Kat's rapture, imagining his hands.
"Seriously Win, you're gonna love him."
"Your date?"
Katrina gives her a big nod. "George."
"...George…?" Winona echoes, shaking her head in confusion.
Kat nods again. "Kirk. Engineering major, loves to tinker— Oh! He has a motorbike. Runs on gas! So retro." She giggles. Winona's parents were traditionalist, her upbringing nothing like Katrina's in the midst of Starfleet's hub. "I knew when I met him, he's perfect for you!"
"I... don't understand," her roommate confesses, her expression somewhere between bewilderment and concern.
"What part?"
"Tonight was your first date?"
Katrina shakes her head. "Fourth."
Winona frowns. "Why four dates if you knew when you met him…"
"Research," she answers, as if it's obvious.
"And you slept with him."
Kat shrugs, a smile tugs at her lips. Winona purses her lips.
"...For 'research'…?"
Kat shrugs, again, her smile widening. "W-e-l-l," she elongates the word, expression turning conspiratorial. "It was fun, too."
Winona stares, utterly at a loss for how to feel.
"Did you ….tell him ….about me?"
"Not yet."
"Kat—"
"I have a plan." She plucks the PADD out of Winona's lax grasp and starts tapping.
"Kat—" Winona repeats, growing alarm evident in her tone.
"We're going to Tycho City for the weekend," Kat explains, turning the PADD back around so Winona can see the screen. "To watch the lunar morning." Once a month, Sol's rise is visible from the Sea of Clouds, just a short hike from the city.
"Who's we?" Winona asks, wary.
"It was George's idea. He's such a romantic." She knocks Winona's shoulder with her own to stress a romantic like you. Winona feels a rock growing in her stomach.
"When was your first date?"
"The mixer for the Franklin's launch."
Winona gasps. "...That was over two months ago!"
"You know how busy a Starfleet schedule is," Kat explains, blithe. "I mean we'd been talking about it since the semester began— he's fifth year, too, did I say that?" She shrugs. "Really promising career." He really is perfect for Winona, she's so pleased.
"Oh my god."
Kat turns at the creeping despair she hears in her friend's voice, frowns at Winona's wide eyes and pink cheeks. "What?"
"Kat!" She swats at her head, her voice screeching upwards. "He planned a romantic weekend for you. He thinks you're dating! You are dating! He thinks you're serious!"
Katrina waves her hands, dismissive. "As soon as he meets you, he'll forget all about me."
"I am not going." Winona crosses her arms, determined. Katrina was mad to think she would!
"You have to! It's the perfect place to fall in love."
"Do you hear yourself?" Poor George!
"You can bring someone," Kat offers.
"What? No!" That would make it even more awkward, something that should not be possible all told.
Kat screws her face up and knocks Winona's shoulder again. "If you don't come, you're gonna regret it for the rest of your life."
She's just as determined to drag Winona to her destiny as her friend is to stay home. More because she knows she's right.
"You are unbelievable," Winona whines.
"George Kirk is your soulmate," Katrina affirms, knowing she's won. "Someday you two are gonna name a kid after me."
Winona throws up her hands. It's no use, when Katrina Cornwell sets her mind on something, she doesn't stop until it's happened.
"So?"
"So?"
Afsaneh rolls her eyes. "So what happened?"
"Well. It was—"
"-beautiful," says Katrina.
"-embarrassing," says Winona.
"-a disaster," says George.
"-hilarious," says Gabriel, laughing into his beer to drive the point home. "One of my top ten weekends to be sure," he continues, with a wink that causes the other three to blush.
Afsaneh's eyes go wide. "Spill!" she entreats.
Katrina sighs. "Nothing happened. I mean — they fell in love, exactly as I said they would."
"Only after you broke his heart," Winona adds, with slightly more bite than she meant to show. George frowns.
"Bruised," he counters in a light tone, "and forgiven". His hand snakes across the table to grasp his wife's. "Because she introduced me to true love."
Winona's cheeks blush pink. "You goof."
"Your goof."
As George raises their hands to his lips Gabriel leans toward Afsaneh. "It was a lot like this." She raises an eyebrow. He points finger to finger, counting. "Bad flirting, hurt feelings, sappy declarations..."
"Please tell me everything."
"And Kat and I were arrested."
"What?!"
"The charges were dropped," Kat interjects, defensive.
"But what were they?" Kat looks away, Gabriel flashes a wide smile. "Gabe!" Afsaneh swats his hand, impatient.
An infant's cry cuts through the conversation and heads swivel to the kitchen comm. Winona rises.
"Excuse me." She meets George's look, waves off his help with a smile, and walks swiftly down the hall to the nursery. Their nearly ten month old son is standing in the crib, big fat tears rolling down his cheeks, but he smiles when he sees her and reaches a hand in her direction.
"Oh, wee Georgie, did we wake you?" Unbalanced by his determination to reach her, his small legs start to wobble but she plucks him up into her arms before he falls. "Or are you just hungry, my little man?"
Winona crosses to a rocking chair and settles in to feed her son. After a moment a shadow falls over them and she looks up to find Katrina's followed her back.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to..." Her voice trails off, not sure if leaving or staying is more awkward.
"It's okay." Winona isn't embarrassed and it's nothing Kat hasn't seen before anyway. Kat moves into the room.
"He's so big already."
Winona smiles. "Takes after his Daddy."
An uneasy silence grows as Katrina weighs her words. Winona gently moves George to her other breast. When he's settled she looks up to meet her friend's eyes.
"Do you ever regret it?"
Kat frowns, shakes her head, not certain what she's asking.
"Giving me George."
"I didn't—" She sighs and drops onto the toy chest, the only available seat in the small room. "Winona, George was never 'mine'." Winona bites her lip. "He would tell you the same thing."
"I know."
Kat's frown deepens. "This insecurity isn't like you."
Winona averts her eyes, strokes little George's hand with her thumb. "George has been offered a post on the Kelvin."
Katrina catches her breath. "Deep space?"
Winona nods. "First officer."
"That's amazing!" She'd always known George would be the first to rise. "When does he leave?"
"He hasn't accepted yet."
Kat's eyes narrow. "He doesn't want to leave you," she guesses. But Winona shakes her head.
"I can go. There's a position for me, too." She pauses, swallows. "But we can't bring the baby."
"I thought your parents..." George and Winona were Starfleet when they met, and married, and chose to have the baby. They'd made plans to accommodate him before he was born.
"They were. They are, they—" She shakes her head. "They can't wait to show him the farm."
Katrina doesn't have any idea what to say. She's far too close to both Kirks to treat Winona as a patient, but this is entirely outside her experience as a friend or fellow officer. So she lets the quiet linger, waits for Winona as she detaches the sleeping baby from her breast and places him carefully back in his crib.
"I didn't know it would be so hard," she finally admits. "What if he wants me and I'm not there?"
Kat stands and moves to join her by the crib. "My parents were in Starfleet." Winona knows this, though she doesn't talk about her family often. "Sometimes I didn't see them for six months or more, but." She shrugs. "But when I did they had so many stories to tell. And I never doubted they loved me."
Winona makes a face. "Never?"
"Well." She smiles. "No more than anyone else does."
Winona smiles, too, softly, and steps away from the crib, back towards the door, the hall and gathering of friends. But she pauses at the doorway and looks up into Kat's eyes again.
"Do you ever..."
"What?"
Winona squares her shoulders. "Do you ever think the reason you run away from love is…"
"I don't — run away —"
Winona makes another face.
"I don't!"
"Shh!" Winona cautions, glancing first at the thankfully still sleeping infant and then to the light down the hall, the murmurs of their friends. Laughter indicates Gabriel is still spinning his tale. She takes a breath to calm her nerves and pulls Katrina into the bedroom she shares with her husband.
"George was in love with you."
"No—"
"Yes," Winona asserts, eyes wide and clear and boring into Katrina's to make her understand. "Yes."
Kat opens her mouth but Winona's expression stays her words.
"And so was I," she continues, low and quiet, but crisp, and very clear. "And so is Gabriel, and probably Afsaneh, I don't know her very well. And a hundred other people." Winona is honestly not convinced this is an exaggeration. "You're very lovable you know. You're like this bright shining star that everyone is drawn to but nobody can touch."
Katrina wraps her arms around her body, as if Winona's words are weapons, tuned to slice through her. Winona throws up her hands in frustration. She wants to scream but can't afford for anyone to hear it. She finally deflates, drops onto the bed, and drags a hand through her hair, trying to focus on something simple. Something that won't hurt so much no matter what she chooses.
After a long wordless moment, Katrina takes a seat beside her.
"Afsaneh is engaged."
"Okay."
"And Gabriel and I are friends." Winona pointedly stops herself from rolling her eyes. "Good friends."
"Okay."
"And you and George are perfect for each other."
"I know." She takes a deep breath. "But—"
Katrina grabs her hands. "No buts!"
"But—" She holds Kat's gaze until she presses her lips in acquiescence to listen. "If he was married to you he wouldn't hesitate to take the position. He wouldn't think twice. And — he deserves it. And he'll be such a good captain." Kat pulls her lips in over her teeth, her gaze never wavering from Winona's wide eyes, bright with tears. "And I — I hate being in the way. I hate the idea of my son ever thinking even for a second that he's in the way."
Kat tugs on her hands and Winona collapses into her embrace. Katrina holds her tightly, strokes her hair, as she sobs into her chest. When all the tears are spent, they remain entwined, listening to each other's breath. Finally, Katrina pulls away, and takes her hands again.
"Win, you can't… You're not responsible for anyone's feelings, not even your child's."
Winona knows this. It just doesn't seem fair. "I just want to do the right thing."
"There is no right thing. There's just a hundred choices you have to make, over and over, so you can go forward."
Winona nods. She knows this, too. But it's easier when it's only her own feelings she has to swallow.
Kat cocks her head. "Look, it's a five year mission, right?"
Winona nods.
"I don't remember being five."
"So…"
"Sooo, you can go explore the galaxy, with George, side by side, the way it's supposed to be." She squeezes her hands. "And then come back and — raise sheep or whatever it is you do on a farm—" Winona giggles. "Or move to a colony or a space station or who knows, why can't you have a baby on a starship?"
"Because it's dangerous?"
"So are sheep."
Winona's giggles increase until she completely falls apart laughing so much she snorts. Katrina grins.
"I'm just saying."
Winona throws her arms around her.
"I love you, Katrina Cornwell."
"Yeah," she says into Winona's shoulder, snaking her arms around her waist. "I love you, too." She squeezes tightly. "Really."
They stand, together, brush all evidence of tears away, and walk arm in arm out into the hallway, toward the lingering conversation of friends.
"Maybe the Kelvin needs a counselor," Winona suggests.
"You'd really want that?"
"Sure." Kat peers at her face, seeking truths. "You're good to talk to."
"Something you'd want in a counselor."
"Exactly." She leans into the nursery as they pass, verifies George is sleeping peacefully, and pulls the door closed.
"Do you want more children?"
"George does." A smile tugs at her lips. "Yes."
"Good." Winona glances over. "I still want a namesake."
"Our first girl, I promise."
"Why not a boy?"
The giggles return. "A second son will be named after his grandfather."
"Hm." Her eyes twinkle. "James Katrina Kirk. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"
They step into the light of the kitchen, George, Gabriel, and Afsaneh turning with wide questioning eyes as their laughter fills the room.