Post 402: What Was

Stardate:70818.2300
Title: What Was. . .
Author: February Grace
Scene: Deck 8: Quarters
Time: A day after "Look Up"
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Sitting in her quarters, a place that seemed at once familiar and altogether new to her at the same time, February was grateful for a lot of things.

The fact she was alive. The fact that she had great friends, who had saved her not only from herself but from those who would have imprisoned her, or worse.

One other thing she was particularly grateful for was that her musical ability had returned, right after her interaction with Deveral. She hadn't known how she was going to go on without it, if it had never come back.

She picked up her Heartbreaker and strummed. Top three strings were flat. She tuned it up, then strummed again. Too much reverb on the amp, she decided. She dialed it back and strummed again. Just enough.

She began to play, but before she reached the first chorus of the song that had been stuck in her head for days now, the door chimed. She resented the interruption at first. But when the doors parted and she saw Dabin Reece standing there, duffel slung over his shoulder, suddenly she felt something entirely different.

Perhaps it was Grace shining through. Perhaps it was that she was so emotional in general right now. Or perhaps it was that somehow, against all odds she had become incredibly attached to Dabin Reece in a short period of time, she didn't know which.

She just knew that the sight of him standing there, ready to leave with his bag packed made her want to cry.

She wasn't the only one taken aback by the power of the moment. Dabin Reece did a double take when he saw her. Apparently the first thing she'd decided to do after leaving Sickbay was give herself a makeover.

Her hair was different; streaked in highly contrasting dark and blonde tones, and it framed her face in layers. Where she had been hiding behind it before, it seemed she was hiding no longer.

The glasses were gone, she was fully made up and the color of her blouse made her eyes seem, if it was possible, even more blue.

It was a moment before he spoke. "I didn't want to go without saying a proper goodbye this time."

She gestured for him to come in. He set his bag down and moved toward her. She stood up, and she didn't know if she should hug him, shake his hand, or wave him off. Instead she invited him to sit down.

He did so nervously- which was unusual for him. It took a lot to make him nervous after all those lifetimes. Somehow, this moment managed to do the job efficiently and completely.

"I have something for you." He handed her a small leather portfolio, and she opened it. Inside, a charcoal drawing. February appeared in the middle, and around her in the collage were the images of each of Grace's previous hosts.

"How did you accomplish this?"

"Took a little research to find pictures of all of them to draw from. But I needed something to do while I waited for the zhian'tara to begin."

"You drew this?"

He nodded. "Grace is a musician. Reece draws."

"Thank you, so much." She didn't want to show how it was really effecting her, so she looked away. She set the drawing aside, locked her eyes on the floor and began to play her guitar again. Reece closed his eyes.

"God. You've got his talent."

"Can I tell you a secret?"

"Are there any left to tell, little girl?" He said with a laugh, nudging her gently.

"Maybe a few." she continued to play, working up the bravery to tell him. "It wasn't Deveral's talent at all. It was Sachal's."

"No freaking way."

"Way."

"Wow." He shook his head. "Well, can I share something with you too?"

"Please."

He picked up an acoustic from the stand beside the couch, and he took it into his hands as gently as a mother holding a newborn baby. He looked at her, wiggled his eyebrows, and then began playing as if he'd done it all day, every day, his entire life.

"Whoa. Reece. I didn't know you could do that."

"I couldn't." He shook his head. "All my life I've loved music, to the point of obsession that some have called a form of insanity. But I couldn't carry a tune with a handle attached to it. Couldn't play a note. Stone tone deaf."

"Then how?"

"Rigin says he thinks it happened during that episode where my personality and Deveral's overlapped there for a moment. You remember that."

"Only for the rest of my life. It was quite something."

"Well that's the reason I guess that joined Trills don't usually take part in each others zhian'taras, you can't know for sure which wires might cross. Anyway, seems that I got one last gift from Grace, after all." He glanced over at the portfolio on the coffee table, and a thought occurred to him. "Hey, I wonder."

He grabbed his bag and unzipped it. He withdrew a piece of paper and a charcoal pencil and handed them to February.

"Draw."

"What?"

"Don't think. Just draw."

She set the guitar aside, and sighed. She cleared her mind, looked at him, and began to draw his face, beginning with his eyes. "Oh my god," she whispered, "I don't believe this."

"It appears that once again, Grace and Reece have made their mark on each other." Dabin said, leaning closer and taking note of her work. February's heart began to speed up, and she set the pencil down and grabbed her guitar again, playing away with fury.

"I suppose that's nothing compared to the previous gift that Tuli gave Deveral," She was, of course, speaking of the unexpected child born to their previous hosts.

Dabin picked the acoustic back up and absentmindedly began to play in harmony with the song she played. "Jazen writes to me every so often. I will tell him what has happened."

"I don't want to disrupt his life. He certainly doesn't owe me anything, and I wouldn't blame him if he never wanted anything to do with Grace in any form. But if he's ever curious about me, tell him that if he writes to me, I'll write back."

He nodded.

"There's something else I wanted to tell you, Reece,"

"Yes?"

"Deveral wouldn't have told you this. Hell, he wouldn't have told me this. I had no memory of it until after everything. . .but. . .after the memories came back, I realized something about him that I really think you should know."

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Lt. (jg) February Grace
Helm/Flight Controller
USS Independence NCC-90791