The Letter

Posted on Tue Jul 6th, 2021 @ 3:09am by Lieutenant Baeryn Whavi-Tonelly & Captain David Tonelly [Reece]

Mission: Season 5: Episode 2: Operation Save Humanity
Location: Whavi & Tonelly Quarters
Timeline: MD 8 1300
2148 words - 4.3 OF Standard Post Measure

The quarters of Lieutenant Whavi and Corporal Tonelly was still illuminated by candles spread out from the relaxing bubble bath they had shared. Where Baeryn finally found the courage to tell David she was with child. She now stood in front of the large mirror in the bathroom wrapped in a robe using a towel to dry her still wet curls. The hybrid couldn't stop her face from spreading into a wide grin, her senses and emotions overcome with such contentment she was unsure how to react to it all.

David moved up behind her and gently wrapped his arms around her front, his hands gently resting on her belly. "Have I said that I love you?"

"Hmmmm, I can't recall, surely that means you haven't." She teased as she leaned back, cozying up to David's arms wrapped around her.

A chuckle vibrated deep in his chest. David then leaned down and nuzzled the right side of her neck. "I love you, Baeryn."

"I have something..." Baeryn started but hesitated for a moment, gathering what courage she could. "Something for you. But now it seems silly."

"For me?" He said as he pulled his head back and smiled. "You mean there's more?!" He sounded genuinely excited.

A light blush started to creep across Baeryn's cheeks, feeling the heat she attempted to hide her face. "It's...I mean you don't have to accept it. I think in the end it was more for me then you to be honest, but if you want it still, even though its nothing...I'll give it to you." She said shyly.

Concern started to fill his features. He gently pulled her back to the tub and sat on the edge, facing her, eye-to-eye. "Baer," he started softly. "You should never think that about something you do. I will always gladly take whatever it is that you want to give me. I will also never judge you, especially when it's something you find important, which I can tell this is, despite your protestations to the contrary." He took a beat and held her close to him. "May I please see what it is that you are referring to?"

“Yes.” Baeryn stood and lead David into the bedroom by the hand. Once he was seated on the bed she pressed a kiss to his forehead before proceeding to her dresser and retrieving a folded piece of paper. She hesitated knowing she hadn’t reread the letter since she wrote it. “A friend suggested that I write down my feelings while you were…. unconscious. So I did,” Baeryn turned to face David, shifting nervously on her feet.

Her face was still pink as she extended the letter to David. “He told me I should read it to you when you finally woke, but I don’t think I can do that.”

David took first the letter, then Baeryn's hand. He gently pulled her to sir on the bed next to him. He then handed the lettee back over, his cerulean eyes shining with love. You wrote these words down, on actual paper, becauae you felt it was important that I hear them. So let me hear them, in your beautiful voice. Please?"

"Paper felt more personal, less like writing a report...and not as easily traced." She sighed, her cheeks growing a darker shade of pink, almost red. "Your not going to let me out of this are you?"

He replied with a full, beaming, smile. Dimples and all.

Baeryn grunted and rolled her eyes. She unfolded the letter and stared at it for what seemed like forever before inhaling a deep breath. She began reading before she could talk herself out of it. Eyes not leaving the letter once until she was finished.

~” I can see you, but your a whole universe away from me. The distance is slowly tearing my heart in two.

I’ve never felt so lost, so aimless before. Every moment of everyday my hope teeters on the edge, swayed by the emotions I’m trying to suppress, the negative thoughts that follow. What if you never wake? What if you do, and have no recollection of me?

It’s difficult to hold on to hope when i feel crushed by these ever constant nightmares. These nightmares and…. regret. Regret that I was never brave enough to tell you how I truly feel about you, never brave enough to voice my feelings. I was a coward to keep them to myself when time and time again you shared yours with me. You gave me ever opportunity to tell you how I felt. I was a fool for shying away. And now I’m forced to wonder if I will ever have the chance to tell you how deeply and madly I love you.

David I’ve never felt more loved in my life. I’ve never felt so safe, so taken care of, so tended to. So seen. My time with you, while short, has changed my entire being in more ways then I’ll ever be able to comprehend. Everything is more beautiful, more special because I’m able to see the love in every moment with you. Which makes being apart so incredibly insufferable.

I see you everywhere. I dream of you every night. I think of you all day. I would trade the rest of my life for just one more moment with you. Just to see that smile again, to feel you return my kiss just one more time. I would give my life for that. In an instant.

Come back to me. If for no other reason then for me to tell you how much my pathetic broken little heart beats for you. How it’s slowly healed by whatever magic you possess. Come back so that I can tell you that I love you David Tonelly.”~

When she lifted her face to David’s tears ran down from both eyes.

David's eyes were dripping tears as well. But, they were happy tears. This was evident by the huge smile on his face. When she stopped speaking, he suddenly took in a breath, his body finally reminding him that it needed oxygen. "Wow! Baeryn, that letter is definitely not nothing! That was beautiful! I knew that you did love me, even if you hadn't said the words. But, the rest! I had no idea! C'mere..." he opened his arms wide to her.

Baeryn scoffed but fell into David's arm. "Can I burn it now?" She joked as she wiped her eyes on her sleeve. She had cried more in these last couple weeks then she had in years.

"Noo!!" He exclaimed. "I'm going to treasure this forever!" He delicately removed the letter from her hand and placed it on the end table. Then, when he turned back to face her, said, "And I am going to treasure you forever." He then leaned her back on the bed and kissed her deeply.

Baeryn returned the kiss, then gently she pulled back so that she could look at David. The pads of her pointer finger traced the side of his face, her eyes following the path they made. Ending at his bottom lip, “Some nights I wake up still thinking you're unconscious in sick bay and I find it difficult to breath.”

"Baer," David said softly. "I'm right here, this isn't a dream, my love." He took hold of her hand and carefully moved it to his chest, over his beating heart. "See? That is no dream, I'm real, and I'm not going anywhere."

Baeryn could feel a sense of calm blanketing her as she felt the steady beating of David's heart under her palm. He was here. He wasn't a dream. He had come back to her. "Thank you for loving me, and for accepting me as I am. Broken and stubborn."

Reaching up, David gently moved a few stray hairs ear of Baeryn’s face. "You're not broken, Baeryn." He grinned. "Stubborn? Definitely!" He stuck the tip of his tongue between his teeth. Then his features softened again. "But not broken. Not while I'm here. We were broken before. Now? Now we're whole, one, together. "

Baeryn playfully rolled her eyes, "You're such a romantic."

David gave Baeryn a loving smile, though there was more than love in his eyes. "Only for you, Baeryn, only ever for you."

Baeryn let the weight of David’s words sink in, had it been anyone else she would of called horse shit, especially at his age, but there wasn’t anything that beautiful mouth could say that she wouldn’t believe. “Boy or girl?”

It took him a beat to realize the game. Smiling warmly, he said, "Girl." Then, he followed up with, "Twins or single?"

“Single!” Her eyes widened as she shot the answer out immediately. “I don’t know if I could handle twins.”

David chuckled. "Apparently, it does run in my family." Now that his memories were growing more solid, he tried to make a joke about it, hopefully it came out correctly.

There was a pause between the two. Baeryn searched David’s face for any sign the subject was one she should avoid. But after not wanting to dance around the subject she spoke up, her voice soft, “Do you want to talk about him?”

David's features softened even more. Shrugging slightly, sadness started to fill his cerulean eyes, turning them a slate grey. "Not sure what to say really. We were young when he died, four, maybe five, I still can't remember it clearly. What I can remember, though, is the reason why my parents did what they did. Apparently, after Jakob died, I continued carrying on as if he was still alive."

He took a breath and continued. "They were worried that I'd be ostracized for what was seen as a deficiency. So, they had an ancient procedure performed on me, erasing Jakob from my mind. The plan was that for the rest of my life, I'd get an update of the treatment ever hundred years or so. Of course, the Borg...well...that changed everything. So, over the years, the original treatment has been failing, until it finally broke, the other night."

"Does finding out your a twin change anything for you? Aside from the fact you weren't an only child?" Baeryn was careful to keep her voice light and gentle. While he spoke her fingers traced little designs on his skin.

David considered the question for a few beats, then replied. "That's a little difficult for me to answer right now." He finally broke eye contact with her. "I'm sorry." For some reason, he was feeling shame, but he didn't know why.

Baeryn took him by the chin and redirected his eyes back to hers. "Hey, you don't have to have all the answers right now, or ever." She leaned up to kiss the corner of his mouth. "It's going to take some time and that's okay."

David gave Baeryn a sad smile and nod. "Thank you. For...you know...being patient with me."

“You never have to thank me.” Baeryn let the silence sit between them for a moment. She didn’t know if it helped at all but she pushed her love towards David, wrapping him in it like a wool blanket on a cold winter night. Then with a smile she asked, “What do you want to name her?”

"Samanthanna. It..it was my mother's mother's name. It was tradition in my family to name the girls after their paternal grandmothers. But, we don't have to. Not like there are many of us left."

“It’s beautiful, we can call her Ana for short!” Baeryn couldn’t contain her excitement, she wrapped her arms around David and squeezed him as hard as she could. “I want to follow as many traditions of your people as we can. I want that for our child. I want them to know all there is to know about the El Aurians and how important they are for the future of their race.”

David wrapped his arms around Baeryn and held her to him. "Thank you!" He whispered into her ear. "If we ever have a son, you can choose his name!"

Baeryn’s thoughts involuntarily drifted to the miscarriage she had when she was still but a teenager. She was glad her face was hidden from David’s so that he couldn’t see the pain in her expression. It wasn’t often she was reminded of the baby she lost, even rarer yet did she allow herself to dwell on it.

Fighting back the dark thoughts she pressed a kiss to David’s temple then whispered, “Want ice cream?”

Giving Baeryn a hungry grin, David replied. "Sure, how about we share a banana split?"

***OFF***