Reunited (Part 3)

Posted on Thu Mar 21st, 2024 @ 10:02am by Lieutenant Commander Liam Reynolds & Lieutenant Amia Telamon MD

1,904 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 1: Palingenesis
Location: The Promenade
Timeline: Current

PREVIOUSLY :

Amia: "I can't take all this in, I'm sorry....... Will Cade be afraid of me? Was his mother good or bad to him? Will he be mad that I'm not her? Or relieved? What do you want him to see me as? If he hates me, will it be safe to bring Liana here?" she stopped.

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ON:


Amia drew in a deep, shuddering breath. "Liam.......?" she began....... suddenly throwing herself into his arms. "I missed you SO much!! How can you be here? Are you real??" she squeezed him tightly, remembering the scent of his hair and then suddenly feeling embarrassed and letting him go, looking away to hide the rush of confused feelings that this melee of emotional memories, old pain and new complications that were threatening to overwhelm her.

"I'm real," Liam said. He was reluctant for her to pull away and in reality would like to pick her up and find somewhere a lot more private and see if they would have a proper reunion. Things had just been heating up in that direction when they had last seen each other but he had Cade with him at this moment and Amia was confused.

"A variant is the version of you in the alternative universe. There are millions of these things Amia. It wasn't the mirror, an alternative. Niska is a cousin now from my mothers second marriage. Cades not afraid of you," he reached out and sensed his son who was buying the biggest jumba stick he had seen. "He understands the situation. He's just sad. And trying for a cavity it seems. Look his mother was brave and kind. Just like you. It was just mine that was evil and twisted."

"Liam" her voice was deeply emotional and her eyes were still showing confusion but there did seem to be some clarity dawning.

"I'm SO sorry you've had to go through all of this." she touched his face softly and traced the line of his cheek bone on one side affectionately. "Especially on your own..... " she started suddenly and began to blush furiously, colouring from her hairline down to her neck, such was the intensity of her embarrassment as she realised that she'd made a HUGE assumption.

"er..... I'm SO sorry.......... I..... " her eyes locked themselves to the floor as she spluttered. "That was an enormous assumption of mine which was totally unfair. I am very sorry..... it's so very unlikely and I don't know why I would jump to such a ridiculous idea."

"I've missed you Amia, a lot. So much." he said. "I wasn't alone for a little while after the second time. I stupidly got married too quickly and she turned out to be the devil in disguise. I'm widowed now although certain parties believe she faked her death. But ... " he cleared his throat more embarrassed than anything that he fell for the idea of "kaylee" hook, line and sinker. ..."Rebuilding you know ... and you?"

He found the idea of being back in just "friend" territory with her awful but she might be not alone.

Amia looked at him, really looked deeply into his eyes, for the first time in what felt like forever. It had hurt her to do that at first, seeing him again, after thinking he'd been dead nearly as long as Cade... the first Cade.... "Spirits, this is complicated..." she muttered before lifting her chin and speaking more clearly.

"It hurts me so much to think of you being treated so badly. I missed you too. I hadn't known quite how much until this sudden discovery that you're still alive........ what in the universe could have put us back together after so much contorted fate has played out for everyone...." her eyes filled with tears but they didn't fall yet.

"....and now, just the sight of you has me giddy with hope - hope that I had previously lost totally - and I'm not even sure if you'd be even thinking you'd like to be friends again, or if you're embarrassed or just totally, long ago......or maybe you're needing me *NOT* to be here because it might unbalance little Cade or your relationship with him?" Her face, which had lit up with animation when she was describing the hope she had felt, returned to the bleakness she'd been wearing as she was walking down the corridor and hadn't seen him yet.

"I don't have any idea what to think or hope but I do know that when I realised it was really you, my whole universe spun uncontrollably and I felt like it was all going to be alright again." Returning to this subject lit her up again.

"After so much time thinking it was all down the tubes, that was a shock to say the least, so perhaps I'm making it into what I wanted to find it to be?" Finally she stopped, simply because she'd run out of breath and was now looking at him to sort all this out.

It was a lot to take in and Liam couldn't shake the thought Amia had just "Friendzoned" him once again. "It will all be alright again," he said finally after a minute not sure how to respond to all that himself. Luckily he was saved by saying anything further and perhaps making it more confusing when Cade returned.

"That is bigger than the last one," Liam said to him at the size of the jumba stick.

The young boy nodded. "I got you both one too," he grinned pulling out two smaller ones from behind his back. Handing one to Amia he said to her, "I know your not my mum. And that's okay," he told her. "I understand the situation. Niska's not my Niska either. And we can be around each other."

Liam cocked an eyebrow impressed. Cade was certainly now coming out of his shell, showing himself to be a chip off the old Reynolds' block.

Amia accepted the jumba stick with a big, motherly smile. "Thank you Cade" she said "and thank you for accepting me even though I'm not your real mum. You're very grown up about people who seem the same but come from different universes or versions of them."

"I just want to say that I'm SO happy to meet you and I really want to maybe get to know you and have you get to know Lianna - I feel like we're family... or at least, I would give anything if we could be........"

Amia wondered if she probably shouldn't even try to reach out and test the water...... but ...... what if she lost Liam again?

Standing up she looked at Liam and blushed. "Do you have someone Liam?” she asked him directly. “You might not want someone at all….. not right now….. maybe not ever, since you’ve been so badly hurt. I would understand that.”

"I don't have someone," Liam said. "But Id like someone and a family." He smiled at her. "And I would love to see Lianna."

"So would I" Amia said sadly, her cheeks colouring a little at the admission as it slipped out. She couldn't hide anything from Liam though. She never wanted that.

"She's with the Telamons, on Trill" she explained, seeing his expression change. "I haven't seen her since I took her there the week before the Cardassians invaded DS5. I had to go back, I couldn't leave my post in a crisis - I had been on holiday taking her for a short stay with her grandparents. It would have been desertion not to go back........ although now, I wish I'd maybe taken a bit longer and missed the chance to get back in before lockdown."

Amia sighed. "So much has happened since that day. I was such a mess when they got me out of there so I was hospitalised for months. Then I needed rehab and now, I'm back to work but no-one can be really sure I can keep it together anymore as I haven't been put under pressure yet and they're all going to be watching when that happens."

"How could I have tried to bring Li back to be with me and then end up possibly failing that test and ending up having to send her back because I'm still broken......?" Her eyes were full of deep pain and sorrow as she thought of her little girl and tried to imagine how she must have grown.

"Will she even remember me, anyway?" a whisper escaped her as the thought tore at her heart.

“She will,” Cade said. “You don’t forget your mother.”

The young boy squeezed Amia's arm then went to stand next to his dad.

“Amia I can help you reconnect with her. You’re not broken just your confidence is wounded and you could never fail your daughter,” Liam said seriously.

Amia looked back at Liam with deep pain still showing in her eyes. "That's so sweet of you, Liam, but I was broken, I gave up, I knew nothing but pain, day in and day out, they knew how to humiliate me over and over and ...... " she choked on the words for a moment.

"I just wanted to die. I thought you were probably dead too, I knew my Cade was dead, I believed I'd never see Liana again and even if I did, it would have been so long that I wouldn't know how to ..... " she cut off again but drew in a long, shuddering breath and then went on more steadily.

"I got better though..... my friend River... she was my ACMO.... she helped me. She never gave up and moved her own recovery and convalescence to be close enough to visit me. She was an angel. IS an angel. I can do it Liam, I have to just be strong again.... like I used to be..... " she was gaining strength and resolution as she was talking, encouraging herself with many of the words that River had said to her.

Amia reached out her hand and took Liam's firmly. "If you meant that, if you'd be around to help me, I'd be so grateful and so happy and.........." she began to tear-up a little but shook her head as if to try to stop it.

"What I mean is Yes Please" she finished, smiling at him a little shyly, blushing yet again.

"Would it be okay if your dad and you were to help me find my little girl please, Cade?" Amia turned to the little boy with eyes like hers and a smile like Liam's.

The boy nodded. "Of course. And bring her to live here. I'm sure she would enjoy the Jumba sticks too. And school is really not that bad."

Despite her sadness, Amia couldn't help but laugh at that final comment. NOT that bad Bless him. What a lovely little lad. Amia's broken, frozen heart fluttered with the beginnings of a new love and warmed with the hope of an old one, reunited.

off

A JP between:

Lt Cmdr Liam Reynolds
...... ?

USS Pisces

Cmdr. Liam Reynolds
Chief Ops
DS21


and

Lt. Amia Telamon
CMO
DS21

 

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