Opening the Heart

It had been three days since they had been awakened from their telepathic link and they had tried to spend some of each day getting to know each other, since they had the week off-duty as they recovered. . . Not so much physically, as emotionally.

Today, they had taken the twins to the park. They sat on a bench as Luc and Maya ran all over, crunching their feet in the snow that was still on the ground.

“They have so much energy,” Rahel smiled.

Karissa nodded. “They’re a lot like me when I was little apparently,” she said.

“Me too . . .” Rahel replied. “My parents and Ash would shapeshift to keep up with me.” She smiled.

Karissa laughed gently. “My parents didn’t have such a luxury,” she smiled. “But they were able to reach me through my feelings and thoughts. That probably helped a lot in keeping me in line . . . How long did you know you had a sister? A twin?”

“Oh, I found out almost 2 years ago. But I dreamed about you for a long time,” she replied. “I’ve looked for you ever since.”

She smiled. “And here we meet . . . I remember you now . . . in the fire . . . I remember so much more.”

“So do I,” Rahel said. “So what is it like having kids? I’ve thought about it, but . . .”

“It’s the best job in the world,” Karissa smiled as she looked to the twins who were at the top of the jungle gym smiling and waving. “But the pregnancy is dangerous . . . We . . . were designed to die should we get pregnant. It almost cost me the lives of myself and my kids . . . Had it not been for Will, Ming Wang and Ciara Tierro we would’ve died . . .”

“And your kids? They’re Will’s?” she asked.

Karissa sighed. “My daughter is,” she said. “Maya . . . Luc is the son of Captain Ryan Evans.”

“The . . . late Captain of the Ronin?” Rahel asked.

Karissa nodded. She still felt pain over his death.

“You loved him . . .” Rahel replied. “Not that you don’t love Will, it’s just . . .”

“You feel it so strongly, right?” Karissa finished. “He was the first man I ever truly loved . . . and part of me will always love him. Will knows this and he’s never asked me to push that feeling aside. Probably because he feels confident enough in our own feelings for each other . . .”

Rahel smiled. “I feel that way about Logan . . .” Rahel admitted. “No man has ever made me feel the way he does . . . It’s hard to describe, but when you feel someone in your soul . . .”

Karissa smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I’d say you have it bad for him . . . and he does for you too . . .”

Rahel smiled. “Yeah . . .” she replied. “How is it you ended up with a captain?” Rahel asked curious. “I mean, you don’t have to tell me if it’s too painful . . .”

“No . . . that’s all right,” she smiled softly. “I was assigned to the Ronin as Chief Counselor. At the time it was a bit crazy. Ryan was being sent back to earth as I was coming aboard, but . . . we’d hit it off; even though he didn’t much like counselors at the time. There was a connection between us, even though we didn’t admit it to ourselves at first . . .”

“Because of him being your superior officer, right?”

Karissa nodded. “Yeah . . . but things have a funny way of working out. I had gone drinking with him and a handful of new officers on the ship; all men, of course.” She smiled. “And I went into heat . . .”

Rahel took in a breath. “Oh no . . .”

“Oh yes . . .” Karissa replied with a smile. “I had to admit, it took me a long time to come to terms with the chaos it caused. Sometimes I still feel it, but not like I did . . . I was with three of the four men there that night. The fourth passed out. But . . . Ryan, even in my heat, he was the one I had wanted so badly . . . Not that I hadn’t wanted them all, but he was the one I had wanted most. Ryan, Will, Ming and I had quite an evening. Ryan confronted me the next day about what had happened and why . . . It was then our feelings were revealed. At first we tried to ignore them, but we couldn’t,” she smiled. “Then I found out I was pregnant . . . Of course, within minutes I also found out I had been genetically engineered and then I lost one of the babies I carried.”

“Oh my god . . .” Rahel said, trying to take it all in. “You were originally having triplets?”

Karissa’s eyes misted. The loss of her other son still hurt. “Yes,” she replied. “It was Ming’s son . . .”

“Each of them fathered a child . . .”

Karissa nodded. “But Ryan and I . . . I had never had a connection like that to anyone before . . .”

Rahel smiled.

“Anyway, the rest is history, so to say . . .” Karissa said. “He was there for me the entire pregnancy . . . Will and Ming were too, but it was always Ryan and I. We eventually moved in together . . .”

“Yet you two never married?” Rahel asked.

“I was happy just to be with him,” she said as she wiped at a tear that had managed to surprise her. “We’d already gone through so many personal trials together . . . Then I lost him.”

Rahel nodded. “I image that took a long time to recover from . . .”

Karissa laughed softly. “Ask Will, he was there the entire time,” she said.

Rahel was quiet for a moment. “How do you manage the heat cycles?” she asked seriously. “I mean, lets face it, they are problematic . . .”

“Well . . . if I can’t reach Will . . . there is an alternative for me,” Karissa admitted.

Rachel arched a brow. “And that’s all right with Will?”

“He knows that sometimes it’s necessary . . . and the substitute is a hologram . . .” Karissa replied.

“Something tells me there’s more to this,” her twin replied.

Karissa nodded. “The hologram was created from Ryan,” she replied. “He’s quite real too . . . self aware . . .”

“Does he know he’s a hologram?” she asked.

Karissa shrugged. “If he does, he hasn’t told me. I’m not sure he would tell me . . .”

“And the only time you go to him is when you’re in heat?”

“Well, for that!” Karissa smiled. “But I see him . . . just to talk a lot of times. Ryan was also my best friend in a lot of ways.”

Rahel nodded. She could understand that. “You’ve dealt with a lot.”

“So have you,” Karissa replied. “Not exactly the same kind of things, but I could sense your past history . . . The ships . . . The Gamma Quadrant . . .”

Rahel let out a sigh. “Yes, the Gamma Quadrant . . . My first assignment to a starship and it gets attacked,” she replied. “So many were slaughtered and . . . I couldn’t do anything about it . . . I ended up being the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Science Officer. The Chief Science Officer died on my table . . . A lot of officers died on my table during that incident.”

“You had nightmares about it for a long time, didn’t you?” Karissa asked.

Rahel nodded. “I still do sometimes. Things like that don’t go away.”

“And there’s been other incidents too . . . But at least you and Logan found each other,” Karissa smiled. “That must help a lot. To know that he’s there for you . . . that your brother is . . .”

“And you with Will and your family . . .” Rahel smiled.

Karissa nodded. “I don’t know where I’d be without them.”

“We’ve got to be pretty lucky,” Rahel smiled. “We have great men, wonderful families, and now we have each other again . . .”

“And Shara,” Karissa added. “Our other sister . . .”

“How many other sisters do you think we might have out there?” Rahel asked seriously.

Karissa shrugged her shoulders. “We may never know,” she replied.

“I think Zack might have had an idea,” Rahel said. “But now we’ll never know if he did . . .”

The girls both grew somber as they thought of Lt. Dare. Both of them were medical personnel and to have him die for them wasn’t something that they could simply accept.

“He did save us,” Karissa said. “I just wish . . . “

“We could have saved him . . .” Rahel finished.

Karissa nodded. The held each others hand for a moment and turned their attention back to Luc and Maya who were playing oblivious to their conversation.

“You know, my family is having a big dinner tomorrow night. They want to meet you and Ash,” Karissa smiled. “Trust me, they’ll adopt you too.” She laughed softly.

“I’ll make sure Ash and I can be there then,” Rahel replied.

“Aunt Rahel, come play!” Luc said with a wave.

“Momma!” Maya called out, also trying to wave her over.

Rahel and Karissa looked at each other and smiled. They both had the same thought and knew it.

Swiftly, they sprang off the bench and into the playground. Both jumped to the top of the jungle gym with ease and began chasing the kids through the bars.

“Can’t catch me!” Maya giggled.

“Get me! Get me!” Luc cried.

Both children bounded in opposite directions. The kids had not been as oblivious to the conversation as the two women had thought . . . but for now, their strategy had worked. No more sad memories . . . It was time for fun! Together, they managed to run their mother and aunt all over the park and completely distract them, while pretended to just be typical kids.