The Family we Make

Posted on Thu Nov 14th, 2019 @ 1:42pm by Lieutenant Mona Gonadie & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox
Edited on on Sun Nov 17th, 2019 @ 3:31pm

Mission: Family Detention
Location: Earth. Loudonville Cemetary, Ohio.
Timeline: 2396

The small shuttle set down near the south end of Wood Street in the Village of Loudonville, Ohio. At the helm, Ensign Mona Gonadie gave a long hug and a kiss on the cheek to her wife, Lieutenant Mnhei’sahe Dox as the red-headed Rihannsu woman slowly got up and climbed out of the cramped, Type 15 shuttle the couple had taken from Starfleet Command on Earth for this brief segue before returning to the Hera.

But it was an important stop for Dox to make, and one she needed to do alone. As always, Mona was perpetually understanding and gave her bond-mate all of the support in the universe. Stepping out of the shuttle, Dox walked slowly in the brisk, November air. Her footfalls crunching the golden leaves at her feet as she passed through the gat of the Cemetary.

She knew where the plots were and walked respectfully back to where she was heading. She felt a strange chill down her spine as if she was being watched. And for all she knew, she was, considering her bizarre relationship with Death herself. And the possible fate she had been offered to succeed the woman in her cosmic tasks when Dox’s own life was to end. But she put such thoughts out of her mind as she walked across the dried leaves blowing in the mid-afternoon light.

She had finished with the last of her debriefings and meetings and her rank and station as a Starfleet Officer had been reaffirmed. As such, she proudly wore her crimson uniform as she made her way to a small area near the west corner, just under an old birch tree that was bald for the season. Stopping, she looked down at two small, unassuming grave markers.

The first read ‘Shawn James Dox - 2306-2392’ and the second read, ‘Juliet Margret Dox - 2311-2393’.

Standing there for a long moment, Mnhei’sahe bowed her head with her arms behind her back and closed her eyes in silence. In her mind, she recited a Rihannsu prayer she had found herself saying more and more often since joining the Hera.

Then, opening her eyes, the young woman ran her hand over one of her pointed ears and smiled lightly. “So, I guess these are new for you. I had them fixed… almost a year ago now. What do you think?”

She paused, almost expecting an answer before she chuckled softly, her voice raspier than usual in the sharp, autumn air. Looking down, she put a hand over the top of the cold, gray marker as she spoke again. “I… I wanted to come and say that I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t mean anything anymore, but I’ve had a lot of reasons to think about family of late. And in that, realizing how badly I failed you, I needed to at least say as much.”

“You took me in when I was an angry, bitter, suicidal sixteen-year-old. And now, knowing that I was never even your responsibility, it makes me feel even worse about how I treated you both.” With eyes that were beginning to get watery, Mnhei’sahe sat on the crunchy leaves below her, legs crossed.

“My life has gotten… complicated. Extremely complicated. I don’t even know if that sums it up, really. But to start with, I learned that we’re not… we’re not actually related. My DNA had been damaged. Overwritten with a patch that my mother had purchased from a business partner, your son, Declan. I grew up thinking he was just an absentee father, wondering why he hated me so much as to leave. Now I know that he left because he didn’t HAVE to care. I wasn’t anything to him. He took his money, gave my mother the needed samples, and went on with his business. But it was all a lie, and I’m sorry for that too.”

Slumping her head slightly, Dox continued, “You should never had to have been stuck with me. You should never have had to take in a girl that wasn’t really your granddaughter. But back then, you didn’t care. You hadn’t heard from… Declan… from your son… in over twenty years. You knew what he was. You knew he was a smuggler and a con-man and all of that. You knew, and you didn’t care.”

“You looked at me and were told by the family services people that I was your son’s daughter. A half-Romulan girl you never heard of with a chip on her shoulder the size of a moon, and you didn’t hesitate. You took me in like you had always known about me and never gave it a second thought.” Emotions were beginning to well up as the Rihannsu woman’s usually hidden accent began to pop out ever so slightly.

As the young, freshly reinstated officer noticed it, she chuckled lightly. “You never cared about this? When you met me my accent was so thick. I knew Federation Standard, but spoke it like a translation computer. But you were the only people that never rode me about it. About my accent. You never tried to make me pretend to not be Rihannsu. You only cared if I was happy. And to this day… now more than ever… I can’t understand WHY?”

There was a long pause, almost as if she expected an answer. And while the young woman was on a first-name basis with Death herself, she knew better. But she collected her thoughts as a breeze rustled the dried amber leaves that had collected on the ground. “You were both so good to me. All you knew was that I was your granddaughter and that… that you had been given this second chance to do right by a child. To make a difference and help me. And I wish so much that I had let you more. I wish… I wish I could take back the years of cold stares and forced apathy.”

A tear ran down the young woman’s cheek as she talked. “But I can’t. If I could go back in time, I swear I would grab myself by the shoulders and scream at that angry, bitter, lost girl to stop being a kreldanni hueiul feanna! To grow up and stop being a petulant child who actively tried to ignore what she had.”

“I’m so sorry. I’m sorry that I wasn’t a better grandchild. Because blood or not, that’s what you were to me. In your hear, I was your grandchild and you treated me as such. And when I pushed away, you both just held on tighter to try and let me know that I wasn’t alone. And I’m sorry that I couldn’t understand that at the time.” Crying openly, Dox wiped her eyes dry as she spoke. “I am. I know it’s too late to apologize. Or… maybe it’s not. I suppose I don’t have the benefit of ignorance anymore. I know you’re here… listening. I’ve seen too much to go back to being able to pretend otherwise.”

“Which means… you already know all of this. But… I still needed to say it.” Dox composed herself and stood back up. “You cared for me when you could have shut that door in my face and told the social worker from Starfleet to find somewhere else to take me. But you didn’t. And even though I didn’t appreciate you at the time for all you did for me, I like to think what you tried to teach me about compassion and love and family… I like to think it didn’t fall on deaf ears.”

Tugging down on her tunic, she straightened the front of her uniform. “I made it. I know that I was still stationed on that Fvadt station running shuttles when you both passed away. That I couldn’t be here for you when it happened, but I made it. I’m on a Starship. I’m a Lieutenant. I… I’ve begun to come to grips with who I am. I’m learning… a little slowly… to accept myself. I have friends. REAL friend. And I have family. It’s a family I made, not of blood. But if there’s anything that I can learn from your example, is that we make our own family, here in our hearts.”

Putting her hand on her right side, just under her breast, she nodded. “I love you both, Grandmother. Grandfather. And while I may have another grandmother back on ch’Rihan… another family that has reached out to me, none of that undoes what you did for me. I may be born of house Rul of ch’Rihan… but I will ALWAYS be what you helped make me: a better person. I will always be Mnhei’sahe DOX.”

“I will take that with me forever. I will honor you with that, at least. And when my daughters are born, they will carry it as part of their names as well. I will try and show them what you both showed me about how to love.” In spite of her best efforts, tears streaked the young pilot’s cheeks. “I love you and I will never forget you. Thank you.”

Standing under that tree, half covered in the golden leaves of autumn, Mnhei’sahe folded her hands in front of her, closed her eyes and gave herself one last, long minute. It was only her, the stones and the wind in the trees for a time, before the young Rihannsu turned and began walking back to the shuttle to that family she made for herself.