Toar and Gabrielle's Story

Posted on Thu Nov 30th, 2023 @ 12:14am by Lieutenant JG René Rouen & Lieutenant JG Toareth Rouen (née Darqa)

1,679 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Prelude: Getting Ready to Depart
Location: Toareth's Quarters
Timeline: MD4, 2000 hours

René sat on the couch and wondered for the hundredth time what it would have been like to be a part of Toareth and Gabrielle's lives the last few years. It was a lot to process at the moment. He was going to have to contact his family and inform them of course. That was going to be a difficult conversation. He turned to one of two bedroom doors and watched as Toareth exited Gabby's room went to the replicator and came to sit with him on the couch.

She approached with a glass of water and a cup of steaming El-Aur tea, a little bit stronger than her usual. "Gabby was fast asleep. Playing with the other children really wore her out." She held the glass of water our toward René as she took a seat.

René accepted the glass of water and took a long sip before placing the glass on the coffee table. Her turned to Toar and waited quietly for her to start.

"I...uh..." thought she was well prepared. Toareth had gone over all the conversations she could think of over the past few days. One of those nights she lied down and started one of the conversations in her head. By the time she got through the most important ones, she was ready for sleep, but it was actually time to start her shift. She decided on reaching out with her empathy and feeling the air about René. His aura was one of concern, it seemed to focus primarily on 'why.' Why did she not contact him?

"I tried," she said. "To make contact that is. You were on assignment. I was...well I was working with Lynch." She took a sip of her tea and sat back. "It was only 3 days later that I had a definitive symptom of being pregnant. The first thing I did was try your hailing frequency." She shook her head at him. "Ten minutes later, Lynch informed me that the Dominion had taken out a subspace comms relay. I did not believe him of course. I checked the circuit. Did not believe it when it returned with the same result. Lynch has a way of tampering with things. But, sure enough, the Dominion did take out that relay. I tried redirecting the frequency through other relays and...they were all gone. We were in a comms blackout for anything more than a lightyear away. By the time comms were working again, your frequency had changed, you were on another assignment and the war had Starfleet logistics in chaos. They were too engrossed in tactical planning then to find out where one personnel was assigned. And the file they had on you was outdated. It must have been rough out there."

René listened to Toar speak without interruption. He didn't really fault her for the years long separation. He was absolutely sure that it was Lynch who had engineered that. It didn't lessen the sorrow of missing years with the woman he loved, nor the time lost with a daughter he never knew he'd had with that same woman. "This is...difficult. I am not the same person you once knew. I...lost you and during the war I watched as friends died around me at the hands of Klingons, Cardassians and Jem Hadar. I thought you were dead or...so deep under cover with...Section 31...that you would never resurface."

"Section 31," she repeated with a singular nasal laugh. "I asked Lynch about that and all I ever get form him is that Section 31 does not exist."

René looked towards Gabrielle's bedroom door. "It's going to take me time to wrap my head around all this." He returned his gaze to Toar. "I don't think it will be...possible to just pick up where we left off."

"I understand that. I am not looking to just pick up where we left off and I will not push you into that. We need to reacquaint ourselves and be friends again. I...did not need empathic abilities to know you were hurting as well. I was advised against this but I specifically requested casualty reports. If I could not contact you, I looked for your name there. Of course I never found it. Found names similar to yours. That only drove me to work faster, harder. All those people dying and we were working to try and stop that." She took a breath. "By the fourth month, I found I was not able to keep working as hard as a I was while pregnant. You see, El-Aurian pregnancies last somewhere between 25 and 30 months." She knew he could math that out to years. "After a scan, we discovered our child was growing in me at the rate of a human baby. I would give birth in 9 months. My body..." she looked at herself briefly, "...my body almost could not tolerate it. I died René. And not figuratively either. I got sick and my heart stopped." She could see and feel the concern emanating from René. "Lynch brought me back the first time. Yes, I said 'first time.' He called others to rotate off of our project to see to my needs. I continued to work from my bed until I died again in month 7. They brought me back immediately of course. I did not get out of bed again and Lynch took me off the project until Gabby was born. Them taking care of me had become a full time job. Lynch promised to double his efforts in locating you while I doubled my efforts on our project. Those pregnant months...those months were un...well difficult. After holding Gabby in my arms, I found I would do it all again."

René was horrified at the news of Toareth dying...twice. He felt a moment of gratitude towards Lynch for saving her life, but wondered if his (Lynch) actions were out of genuine concern or as a means to preserve an asset. He decided to shelve that part to think about later. He glanced at the door to Gabrielle's bedroom again. He turned back to Toar. "Tell me...tell me about our daughter. I want to know everything about her."

Toareth was grateful for the change in subject. She did not really want to get into her travels to Romulan Space just yet.

"She's perfect," Toar started. "There have been too few human/El-Aurian hybrids to make absolutely sure, but Gabby is an image of the perfect hybrid in my opinion. She developed in my womb as a human would. Physiologically, she shows both human and El-Aurian traits. Her jugular, the primary vessels of blood flow to and from the brain are located in the back of her neck as opposed to the sides as humans have. She ages like a human so she appears 3 years old and has the brain age of 3. Mental scans show the initial development of a frontal lobe for empathic sensing. I assume she will have similar empathic senses as I do. We've tested it, Lynch, the team and I did. If someone harbored ill thoughts and held her, Gabby would show distress and sometimes cry. If someone dwelt on kind thoughts and held her, she was content and sometimes fell fast asleep. She loves to play and had become the attention of the team when we were off duty. Believe me, after a day of working to find..." she stopped herself, "...after our shift, the first thing the team wanted to do was play with Gabby a few minutes. We were all away from loved ones for a long time. I...uh...again there are too few hybrids to know for sure, but I do not know what will happen when Gabby reaches puberty, reaches brain age of 25, menopause, etc. I cannot know if or when she may suddenly slow down in her aging or how attuned her empathic abilities may become. When you knew me before, I was not much for putting my trust in hope, but now I hope, every day, that we did not bring forth someone who is doomed to a painful life. She tends to be timid at first but ends up trusting people quickly and easily. I have warned her about strangers of course. But she is super-smart and takes to others quickly. In my earshot, she only called Lynch 'Dada' a few times and I always corrected her. 'No, he's not your dada.' But Gabby needed something to call him and I found Uncle Lynch acceptable. Or 'doodoo.' I got her to call him 'doodoo' on many occasions." Toareth laughed briefly at that.

"I could not ask for a more perfect child," Toareth continued. "She is warm and affectionate. She loves the Forest of Forever and says she is Flotter's biggest fan. We've gone on many tours through the forest." Toar thought a short moment. "The only sorrow I feel, because of her, is that I do not deserve someone as precious as she."

René embraced Toar and held her close. "Don't feel that way. You, more than anyone, deserve to find hope and happiness. I...wish I could have been a part of that. The War...and Lynch...had other plans it seems."

"We both wish you could have been part of that. Lynch too, actually. You may not trust him...for good reason. But believe me. He did try to locate you. You owe Lynch more than you know, but he will not attempt to collect. And you are right of course," she took a breath. "We all deserve to find hope and happiness. I just did not expect so much from a child so small."

René just hugged Toar close. Despite all the conflicting emotions he had been feeling over the last several hours, the strongest thing he was feeling was love. Love for Toar, love for Gabrielle...and joy...joy at the fact that Toar was now able to feel hope.

TO BE CONTINUED IN RENÉ’S STORY

 

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