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“I fell in love in a day. It lasted a week. But what a week! Then, I met Jack.” Beverly softly sighed as she reached for her toes and thought about the life that could have been.
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Freshman Cadet Beverly Howard was running across the Academy campus, a stack of PADDs in her arms, reading the top PADD on the stack when she smacked into someone coming in the other direction. Her PADDs went flying and she found herself staring up at a young man wearing the insignia of a Captain. He reached his hand down to help her up.
“I’m sorry...Captain?” The young Captain smiled.
“Still not used to the title. Are you alright?” Beverly accepted his hand and stood up, smoothing down her cadet skirt.
“Just my pride. And....oh no, my PADDs!” Beverly leaned over and scooped up the remains of two of her PADDs.
“Important?” She nodded.
“My schoolwork.” She frowned. “I spent hours working on that paper.” The Captain chuckled.
“I think I can help you extract your data. I’m Jean-Luc Picard.” He held out his hand, this time for her to shake.
“Beverly. Beverly Howard.” He smiled.
“Well, Beverly Beverly Howard, why don’t we return to my quarters and I’ll see if I can at least move your work onto a new PADD. It’s the least I can do after I caused the destruction.” Beverly laughed and rolled her eyes.
“Just one Beverly. And, thank you. I think I’ll take you up on that offer.” She finished gathering the rest of her fallen items and he grabbed half of her belongings and she fell into step next to him as he walked across the campus to the nicer dormitory blocked reserved for visiting officers.
“What were you doing that was so fascinating you didn’t see me?” Beverly blushed.
“Xenobiology. I’m in pre-med. It’s all just so fascinating, don’t you think?” Jean-Luc wrinkled his nose.
“I was never very good at Xeno. But ask me anything about Astrophysics, and I’m your man.” He brought her into one of the buildings and into the turbolift. He glanced down at her legs. “You can use my replicator to replace your uniform.”
“Why? What did...” she looked down and spotted the large streak of dirt and the hole in her blue tights. “Ugh. Thanks. Probably best one of my instructors didn’t see me like this. I’m already in trouble as it is!” He chuckled.
“Sounds like me and Walker when we were students.” Beverly snorted.
“It can’t have been that long ago.” Jean-Luc shrugged.
“It’s a long story.”
“I have time.”
Over cups of tea which turned into dinner and glasses of wine, Jean-Luc told Beverly the story of becoming the youngest Captain in Starfleet. He was currently back at the Academy having meetings on personnel management since he didn’t have a mentor to learn from, having jumped from Lieutenant Commander to Captain. Beverly kicked off her shoes and tucked her legs underneath her on his sofa.
“Wow. And they let you stay as Captain?” He nodded.
“As long as the admirals think I’m ready. I have until the end of the semester next week.”
“Ugh. Don’t remind me.” Beverly glared at the PADDs on his table.
“Sorry.” Jean-Luc continued to fiddle with her broken PADDs as they chatted and he finally handed her a brand new PADD with all of her information on it. “There, that should do it.”
“Wow, thanks!” Beverly stood and moved to give him a kiss on the cheek in thanks, but he turned his head at the same time and their lips wound up meeting. He wound his hands through her long red tresses as their kiss deepened and she straddled his lap on his desk chair. Their clothing was soon strewn around the small set of quarters and the couple made love on the sofa.
“I’m sorry.” Jean-Luc was holding her in his bed and he buried his face in her hair. He had sworn six years ago he wouldn’t seduce random women anymore, and yet, here he was.
“What for?”
“This. I...I know it’s probably not the best time for you to gain a partner....” She smiled softly.
“Not really, but I....” she trailed off and blushed. “Can we do that again?”
Beverly had temporarily moved into Jean-Luc’s quarters. He was only at the academy for another week, and despite finals looming for Beverly, she hadn’t wanted to spend time away from Jean-Luc. She was in love. She knew it, and she knew he was too...and they both knew that it was a bad idea. She was only a first year at the Academy, he was a starship Captain. She wouldn’t be able to ask for a posting on a ship for another two years, and even then, the Captain couldn’t be seen sleeping with or dating a Cadet. But....they made their time count.
It was a bittersweet day when Jean-Luc was packing up his belongings to return to his ship. Beverly tried not to cry, but a few tears managed to slip out. They had been together for a week...but what a week.
“Beverly, I know I can’t expect you to wait around for me, but I want you to know...I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
###
They tried keeping up correspondence, but soon the longer missions for Jean-Luc and the gruelling schedule of pre-med kept them from replying to one another and daily letters turned to weekly...then monthly...and then they just stopped. Jean-Luc sighed and threw himself into his job as a new Captain, but continued to rebuff any attempts by his friend Walker to set him up.
Three years later, as a favour to his new friend Jack, he agreed to allow Jack’s fiancée, a third year Academy cadet, perform her work study on the Stargazer. Walker made all the arrangements and had only informed Jean-Luc that the girl was studying to be a doctor, which only made him think of Beverly. He told Walker he didn’t need to know the details, just to get her a set of quarters and returned to his own to contemplate the woman he no longer felt able to contact.
“Keel to Picard.” Picard set down his cup of tea.
“Picard here.”
“Jack’s girl is beaming aboard. Do you want to greet her?” Jean-Luc sighed.
“I suppose I had better. I’ll be right there” He slowly rose and took a soothing breath. Just because he threw away the woman he loved didn’t mean he couldn’t be happy for his friend. He made his way to the transporter room on the Stargazer and motioned to the chief to beam the student aboard. Jean-Luc gasped when the woman took form. Jack’s girlfriend was Beverly Howard.
“Cadet Beverly Howard. Reporting for duty....Sir.” Beverly stood at attention. Her fiancé had only referred to his Captain as ‘Johnny’, and she hadn’t made the connection that Jean-Luc might still be the Captain of the Stargazer. She stepped off the transporter pad and awkwardly stood staring. She wanted to kiss the man she had said good-bye to three years prior, but she also knew she was supposed to be committed to Jack. Jean-Luc nodded at her.
“Welcome aboard, Cadet Howard. Commander Keel will escort you to your quarters and I suspect Lieutenant Crusher will be more than willing to give you a tour.” And with that, Jean-Luc turned and walked out of the transporter room.
Later that evening, Beverly knocked on his door and when he answered, she kissed him.
“Jack never told me the last name of his Captain. He always said his name was ‘Johnny’. If I had suspected....” Jean-Luc clasped Beverly’s hands in his.
“He never told me his fiancée’s name. I never suspected....Oh, Beverly.” He pulled her close and kissed her once more.
“What do we do?” He took a deep breath and stood back from her, holding her away at arm’s length. He sighed.
“We keep this a secret. We don’t tell Jack.”
“Jean-Luc, I love you.”
“I know, I love you, too.”
###
“Bev? You’re a million miles away. What’s on your mind?” Deanna Troi gave her best friend a curious look. She was supposed to be the one in love, but it looked as if her friend might have found someone, too. She probed at her friend and felt a few feelings coming off her – love tinged with regret, and hope.
“Sorry, Dee! I was just thinking it might be time to rekindle an old relationship.” Beverly wondered what Jean-Luc would say. She decided it was worth the risk. The two had been dancing around each other ever since her return to the ship three months ago. It was time to see if the flame that they had nearly given into two years ago while intoxicated was still there.
###FIN###