Saying Goodbye

Rating: G for general audiences.

Disclaimer: Paramount owns Star Trek, I just play with the people I like.

Summary: My entry for the February "Water" challenge.

Author's Note: This follows the Love Languages universe.

Charles Tucker the Third was sitting in an Adirondack chair watching his children swim. T’Resa, who was now twelve, and her five-year-old brother Morgan splashed about in the beautiful lake water. T’Pol was standing by her husband’s side with a comforting hand on his shoulder.

The family had journeyed to the Blueridge Mountains of North Carolina to stay in the log home that had been in the Tucker family for many years. Trip was there to say goodbye to a woman that he loved with all his heart. Trip’s grandmother, Theresa Tucker, had passed away two days ago and was going to be buried here in the mountains next to her beloved husband.

“Trip, Alan and Julia will be arriving in approximately an hour, so I’m going to go in and help your mother with the lunch preparations.”

“That’s fine Darlin’, I’ll keep a close eye on the kids.”

Trip watched his lovely wife walk toward the house then turned his attention to the children, both of whom could swim like a fish, thanks to him. His sister, Michelle, and her family would be arriving from Ireland in the morning. Trip's grandmother had lived to be well over a hundred, kept her sharp wit until the end, and died peacefully in her sleep. He smiled gently to himself, You really can’t ask for much more than that can you?

His mind was drawn to times in this very lake with his siblings. The four Tucker children always looked forward to summers spent up here in the mountains. It was so different from their home in Florida, much less humid in the summer. Trip seemed to remember constantly being in the water. Grandpa Charlie could take it or leave it, but Grandma loved the lake.

Trip chuckled to himself. The way he remembered it, they only seemed to come out to eat and sleep. Grandma called the kids her 'water-babies'. Theresa had been the one who taught Lizzie to swim in this lake, while it was Trip that showed her how to do cannonball dives off the dock a few years later. Even after Grandpa Charlie died when Trip was nine and Grandma came to live with them, they would come back here several times a year to vacation. Theresa seemed drawn to the serenity of this place.

All the years since Lizzie had been killed in the Xindi attack, Trip had the feeling that his sister was looking out for him, sort of a guardian angel. He hoped that now she would take care of Grandma too.

Trip saw T’Resa dive under the water. She gracefully stroked about twenty feet then popped up for a breath of air. Although his kids were half desert-dwellers, you would never know it to see them. He fully expected to have a fight on his hands when he tried to call them out of the water.

Tomorrow afternoon’s funeral would be an ordeal, but still Trip was happy that Grandma had been such a close and important part of his life. That woman had certainly taught him some valuable lessons. He realized that she had shaped a good deal of the man he had become. Trip felt certain that he got his sense of humor from her; they always found the same things hysterical. She had certainly made that summer he was laid up, after the bus accident, bearable. Bless her heart, she had embarrassed him on more than one occasion as well. Trip wondered sometimes if he and T’Pol would have worked out their issues if it weren’t for Grandma’s well-intentioned meddling.

Trip looked out over the beautiful vista as a single tear rolled down his cheek, “Oh, Grandma how are you going to bear not coming here again?”

Trip felt a hand brush his shoulder. T’Pol must have slipped up on me in stealth mode, he thought.

He looked over his shoulder and no one was there.

Then Trip heard a whisper in his ear, “Don’t worry Darlin’, there’s water where we are.”

THE END