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[scholiast]

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Hi, Lucretia speaking. I'm busy at the moment, but if you'd like to leave a message, I'll get back to you ASAP.
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[dancingmd]

(Absolutely that scares her. That's the worst part about all of this - she loses people she cares about whether she stays or goes. Either way will break her heart.)

Well, at the time, I didn't realize I had created it. But I did figure out I was in the warp bubble because the universe itself was collapsing and Wesley was trying to reach me from the real world, so to speak. I had to take a leap of faith and trust that he knew what he was doing.

(She smiles softly.)

Not that it was a hard leap to make. I trust him more than anyone.

[scholiast]

Good.

(That makes her smile, despite everything. Even though the idea of Beverly leaving her to return home is such a hard one to think about, she's genuinely comforted by the knowledge that she has something to go back to. Lucretia can rely on that, when she does go, to soothe the ache in her heart.)

That's important. It's– I'm just glad you have him, Beverly.

[dancingmd]

Me too. I'm very lucky to have such a son.

[scholiast]

(Not for the first time, Lucretia wishes that she could meet him. Her next question is more curious than anything.)

Do... you think you might ever have more children?

[dancingmd]

(Beverly doesn't answer right away. Instead, she takes hold of Lucretia's hand and traces the lines in it with her thumb as she thinks. It's a difficult question to answer. She's not outright opposed to the idea, yet she cannot envision it either. Not only is she getting too old for it (even in this day and age), there isn't anyone she would raise a family with.)

I... think that path disappeared a long time ago for me.

[scholiast]

(Lucretia watches Beverly's thumb skirt the lines of her hand in silence. She thinks she already knows the answer, so it's no big surprise when Beverly finally speaks. She nods.)

Are you sad about that?

[dancingmd]

I'm sad that Jack and I never had the chance for more. We used to talk about having a big family. And I suppose I could have had children later, by myself, but...it didn't seem right without him.

[scholiast]

Yeah.

(Lucretia has never really considered the possibility of children herself. It seems so alien a subject, especially with all of her big plans and ideas currently set into motion.)

Sorry to bring it up so suddenly, Beverly.

[dancingmd]

It's all right. That's a hurt that scarred over years ago.

[scholiast]

(Lucretia hums, and glances up at the sky. It's been a melancholy evening over all, but no part of it has been unwelcome. That, and she has a feeling Beverly very much needed to talk about this, and she's glad to have granted her that much at least.

She picks up her mug to sip, but the hot chocolate has gone completely cold. She warms it instantly with prestidigitation.)

Did I show you what I got from the maze? (She had, actually, but Beverly had been preoccupied by her photograph so she might not have noticed, which is fine. There were bigger things on her mind in that moment.)

[dancingmd]

I'm sorry, I... think you did but I don't remember.

(She shifts to sit up to see better, though she still leans on Lucretia.)

[scholiast]

It's okay.

(She fishes a book up from underneath of their seat, and hands it over to her.) It's an old journal of mine, from cycle thirty-two.

(It's a bit grubby, even scratched across the cover in a few places. There's a thick, red rubber band holding it shut.) I haven't had a chance to go through it properly yet, but I'm excited to. This was... over seventy years ago.

[dancingmd]

(Beverly takes the journal and turns it over in her hands. She shakes her head in wonder.)

I keep forgetting how long you lived, how much you've seen.

[scholiast]

(Lucretia nods, reaching out to hook a finger into the rubber band, ping it back against the cover of the book. An old habit. She used to get in trouble for snapping the band during meetings while she was listening to Davenport talk and talk and talk.)

Mmm. I've done pretty well for a human.

[dancingmd]

(Beverly nudges her, a small hint of playfulness returning.)

You look pretty damn good too.

[scholiast]

(She grins and nudges back, before delivering a swift kiss to Beverly's cheek.)

Thank you.

(She plucks the book out of Beverly's hands and snaps the band off of it, letting it fall open in her lap to flick through.) I forgot how full these used to get. You can tell how much I had to do in the earlier cycles.

[dancingmd]

(She rests her head on Lucretia's shoulder as she looks over the journal with her.)

Do you miss those days?

[scholiast]

Mm hmm.

(She's scanning idly over a few pages of neat notes, descriptions of their surroundings, of the weather. A page full of pressed flowers neatly labelled. A sketch of Lup in a floppy sunhat, her shoulders bare.)

Not so much the circumstances, but definitely the freedom. The company.

(Magnus' untidy scrawl slopes diagonally across the page; there's what looks like a food stain on the next. More notes in Lucretia's hand, neat, cramped cursive filling every line available. Another page of Lup doodles. ... And again on the next page.

Lucretia peeks before she turns the next one, and coughs, closing the book with a snap and a shrug.)

You get the idea.

[dancingmd]

(As she has been from the day they met, Beverly is irresistibly drawn to the artistry and the personality in Lucretia's handwriting, her drawings, her pressed flowers. All of those things conspired with Lucretia herself to make Beverly adore her as much as she does, to make this choice she has to make so much harder. Intent as she is on studying these pages and seeing what they can tell her, she starts in surprise when Lucretia suddenly snaps the journal shut.

It doesn't take long, however, for her to put two and two together.)

You had a crush on her didn't you! On Lup!

(Jealous? Far from it - her dancing eyes say she is delighted by this nugget of information.)

[scholiast]

(Lucretia hums, embarrassed, and taps her fingers on the cover. Had. Sure.)

Yeah, well...

(She rolls her eyes.) When there's only one other woman on the ship, sometimes these things are inevitable.

[dancingmd]

(Look, it's not as if Beverly is one to talk, considering everything with Picard.)

Even when there's a thousand people on a ship, sometimes these things are inevitable.

[scholiast]

(Lucretia nods, relaxing again.)

It's surreal. Living with people like that, in such close quarters. I don't know how to describe the relationships– they transcends words like 'best friends', or 'family'.

(And then there's Lup. That was never an option for her and Lucretia has long since become fine with that but in a very small, and secret part of her heart, it might always be Lup anyway.)

[dancingmd]

I know what you mean. Not only are you living together...you go through these intense, sometimes wonderful, sometimes traumatic things together, things other people would never imagine could happen, much less understand. It's a bond like no other.

[scholiast]

I knew you'd understand.

(She leans back into Beverly, satisfied.) I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything.

[dancingmd]

(Beverly wraps her arms around Lucretia's waist with a small sigh.)

Me either.