<USS Avalon> "Nobody Wins" 

"Nobody Wins" 

Josh Garrity, Patrick McEntire, Annabelle Garrity, N'Ellie Coyne



Picking up the padd from the counter, N'Ellie began to read it over. She
smiled at the latest test results and began to file release papers. No one
had given her a hard time over treating him because she was familiar with
his medical history, no on that is but the she-beast who called herself his
wife. If only Mac would let her be alone with the cow she'd end this all
quickly and quietly., but the big oaf barely left her alone with Josh let
alone the harpy. Pushing all the negative feelings aside she stepped into
sick bay. "Hello handsome." 

 

Josh hesitated a moment, uncertain who it was she addressed before smiling
slightly, blushing. "hi," he offered quietly.

 

The sound of his voice, the light in his eyes, made N'Ellie's whole face
light up as she smiled at him. "Hi." She repeated as she came closer to him.
"How are you feeling? And don't tell me fine." 

 

He blushed brighter as she cut off his response and shrugged, uncertain how
else to answer her.

 

"Hey, hey," Mac grinned as he entered with Belle on his heels. "Looking
pretty damned chipper there, Kid. How you feelin'?"

 

Josh looked from N'Ellie to Mac, then back to N'Ellie as if daring her to
argue as he responded with a near silent, "Fine." and smiled.

 

"Well for once fine isn't just the normal response to make us stop fussing."
N'Ellie laughed, ignoring Belle. "All the tests are coming back with good
numbers, at least for you." She told Josh before she looked at Mac. "If you
wouldn't mind I'd like to check my patient before I make any further
decisions concerning his care." 

 

"Of course, Doctor," Mac answered calmly, then smiled as Josh greeted his
wife and moved to sit up. "Whoa, might want to wait for the Doc's okay
before trying that, Kiddo." He laughed. 

 

Belle was reluctant to leave Josh alone with that 'woman' but she followed
Mac anyway. She was seething as she looked up at him. "Why is she still his
doctor? After what you told me about her plans, those, those things she has,
why is she near him?" 

 

Mac sighed. He thought she knew this one."Belle, you're the only one, short
of his commanding officer or he himself, who can make changes to his care.
You can go to the CMO right now and tell them you don't want her involved in
his care and they'll have to change it. You're his wife. I don't have that
kind of authority. I'm just his friend."

 

Belle opened her mouth to argue but he was right, so she stormed off towards
the CMO's office. 

 

"Well I see you still enjoy scaring the hell out of everyone." N'Ellie
teased as she examined Josh. "For a shy, quite kid you sure do have a way of
seeking out trouble." She put the wand back into the tricorder and snapped
it closed. She then reached out and ran her fingers through his hair just as
she use too. "I've missed you." 

 

He looked down, gathering his thoughts. "I tried....we couldn't....you were
just..." at last he looked up, near desperation clear in his eyes. "You were
dead." He shook his head, drawing back from her hand. "where were you?"

 

Before she could answer, a tall black gentleman entered the room, smiling
congenially. "Well now, good to see you up and about, Lieutenant." Turning
to N'Ellie, he stuck out his hand. "Dr. Coyne, I want to thank you for your
input on this one. We had a real mess with the evac. I've got him from here,
though." he reached for Josh's chart. "Looking good. How're you feeling,
Josh?"

 

It took a lot for her not to wrap her arms around herself. The memories were
still hard to deal with, so she tried not to dwell on them. Though she knew
at some point she'd have to tell him. When the other doctor came she snapped
out of it instantly. "He's been released." She told the man. "And no
disrespect to you doctor but Ms. Chase should be warned that having just any
doctor see to Josh's unique medical needs is playing Russian roulette with
his well being."

 

"Mrs. Garrity is fully aware of how specific his needs are, Doctor Coyne, as
am I." Linc responded, stressing Annabelle's married name, having been
warned of the possible conflict. "Our CMO on Avalon usually sees to him
herself, but I've had plenty of occasion to look after him as well."

 

"As have I." N'Ellie replied professionally, yet coldly. "As it stands he is
now free to choose whom he wishes to continue seeing and since I will be
reporting to Avalon as it is my new assignment, I'm clearly still an option,
the one with the most experience given our past association." She hated
getting upset, not because she didn't mind a good fight, but because it
effected her children. For the rest of the day they'd each end up making
faces at her as if her milk had gone sour, especially her daughter who
seemed to be very much like her.

 

Linc was a patient enough man, even for his field, but he didn't like games,
and clearly this one was playing a doozy. "Doctor Coyne, I'm not here to
compete with you. I'm here to do my job. A job which Lieutenant Garrity's
wife has specifically requested you not be permitted to perform, as is her
right as his spouse. Further, one that your assignment as a pediatric
specialist, and not a general practitioner or trauma specialist would
generally preclude you from regardless of your previous experience. Yes, the
CMO here on the station checked. As we can all see, Mister Garrity isn't a
child. Either way, I'm sure Doctor McEntire, the CMO of Avalon will continue
to monitor him personally, as she has for quite some time now. As to
choosing your own practitioner, that may well be an option in the real
world, but this is still military and choices are generally made by someone
above us. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to do what I was ordered to do
and stop talking over the head of our patient as if he weren't here. Do you
mind?"

 

N'Ellie smiled sweetly. "He's been released." She handed him the confirmed
release papers. "So you can very well try to examine him but as you can see
he's already nearly dressed and has one foot out the door." She crossed her
arms across her swollen breasts and then wished she'd hadn't as she felt a
small burst of milk.

 

"I'll leave it to his wife, Belle, then, to look out for him from here. I've
got other patients to see to, and I see you've got your own responsibilities
to get to, too." He shook his head, wondering what kind of a mess he'd just
stepped into, but let it go. "See you on the Avalon."

 

"Looking forward to it." She replied tightly as she kept her arms crossed.
She rolled her eyes at herself as she quickly grabbed a near by lab coat.
She wrapped it around herself as she made to follow Josh. Now that he was a
free man so to speak she saw no reason to wait any longer. "Josh." She
called as he made his way to where Mac and Belle had been waiting. 

 

Belle stepped in front of the woman. "Leave my husband alone." 

 

N'Ellie snarl-smiled. "Please, I've no time to thump my chest and play alpha
female with you. It's clear Patrick has told you everything and so you know
damn well I have every right to tell him the truth." 

 

"You have no rights what so ever." Belle replied, unafraid of the hybrid
woman. She lowered her voice as she add, "We don't even know for sure the
little bastards are even his."

 

It normally took a lot to push her when people said things about her, but
N'Ellie would not abide people speaking that way about her children. She
snatched the front of the other woman's shirt and lifted her off her feet.
"If you ever speak disrespectfully of my children again I will gut you and
then hang you from the rafters by your own intestines." 

 

Josh was there before Mac could even react, lowering N'Ellie's arm and
disentangling her hand, his eyes wounded, his ________________expression
confused.  Why would they be fighting? "Don't...." he started, looking from
one to the other, unable to explain further. "Please." 

 

N'Ellie stepped back but kept her eyes on Belle for a moment. If that
she-beast came near her children not even Josh could stop her from sending
her back to sick bay on a stretcher. She then turned softer, hurt eyes on
Josh. "Your wife and best friend seem to think you should be kept in the
dark about certain things. If you decide you want to know what it is they
don't want me to tell you then come to my cabin, I won't remain in their
presence. It's unsettling and poisonous. They are not welcome" With that she
turned and walked away.

 

Josh turned questioning eyes on Belle and Mac."You're not?" Josh asked Mac,
now thoroughly confused. They'd all been friends. What had happened?

 

"We're not hiding anything kid, she just hasn't given us a single moment to
talk to you without her being there, and I didn't want a fight like what we
almost went through here with everyone together, or worse, for things to get
more twisted up than they already are." Mac sighed, worried how to continue
and angrier than ever at N'Ellie for putting them all in this position.
"She's got some interesting ideas, and she's done some...well...I guess you
might say interesting things. Some which directly affect you and your
future."Before Josh could ask, Mac went on, "And we'll tell you all about it
once we get you settled. I want Anna there when we do though in case you
need her. Okay?" Mac looked at Josh, hoping he'd understand. Josh hesitated
slightly, then nodded, trusting Mac more than anyone else to make this all
clear somehow.

 

Catching Belle'sexpression, Mac shrugged and told her quietly. "There's no
doubt who's they are, Belle. I've seen them. They're his. And she's right
about that one thing. He's got a right to know."

 

Josh looked even more confused by that exchange. That seemed to sadden Mac,
who shook his head and suggested softly, "Come on, Bean. Sooner we get you
settled, the sooner I can explain this mess." 

 

"If they are then we'll be needing a lawyer." Belle huffed as she headed
down the hall with the two men. 

 

She'd managed to hold herself together until her cabin door closed behind
her. Then N'Ellie had no control over the tears that rolled down her cheeks.
She slid down the door to the floor in a hurt and angry heap. 

 

"Well that explains the wee ones crankiness." Her nanny said softly as the
slightly older, dark haired, English woman took her glasses off and looked
at N'Ellie with concern. 

 

N'Ellie wiped at her tears as if she were the child the woman was charged
with. "Sorry, Jo. Where are they?"

 

"In the other room." Jo replied. "Gabe's asleep, though restlessly, and
Angel's discovered her fingers move." 

 

Pushing herself to her feet, N'Ellie made her way to room she was using as a
nursery. After picking her daughter up she settled into a rocking chair. ~~I
pray you'll be my eyes And watch them where they go And help them to be
wise. Help me to let go  Every mother's prayer, every child knows. Lead them
to a place, guide them with your grace To a place where they'll be safe.~~

 

When they arrived at Mac and Anna's quarters, Mac checked in on Anna, only
to be informed she was sleeping. Finally. Deciding it was probably better
not to wait, he turned to his friend and shrugged. "Looks like we'll be
doing this just us after all."

 

 

"How can you be so sure?" Belle asked Mac. "She could have lied. From what
I've been able to find out about her, she's slept with half the Fleet, male
and female. She even bedded that Fed. Wire redhead with the Iconian
obsession."

 

Mac shot her a look and frowned. "I saw them, Belle. I saw their eyes. I saw
their faces. There's no question. I'm sorry, but they're definitely his, now
can we stop with the bashing her when she's not here to defend herself,
because in spite of everything, she happens to be someone at least two of us
in this room care about very much even if she has done something really
really stupid and gone way over the edge at the moment. I have to hope this
can be worked out. In the meantime, I won't let her do it to you, and I
won't sit back and listen to you do it to her, so lets just get on with
this, alright?"

 

Belle held up her hands. "Fine, since your convinced. As soon as we're sure
they're his the sooner we can call a lawyer and request a trial date."

 

"A trial date for what? You can't be thinking what I think you're thinking.
Whatever else might be going on, she's a good mother, and you can't be
thinking of interfering with that." Mac exploded. "What kind of woman tries
that?"

 

Josh watched them both and shook his head. Were they ever going to explain
this to him? Sighing, he rose and headed for the door, deciding maybe
N'Ellie would get to the point a little faster.

 

"There his children, or so you keep saying, why shouldn't he have custody of
them?" Belle asked, unaware that Josh was trying to leave. "Did you know she
was under consistent supervision of a physiatrist before she returned to
active duty?"  

 

"And do you know their father is noted workaholic with a history of evading
psychiatric evaluation and highly suspect OCD tendencies. One who was
actually trying to off himself not all that long ago, now you want to stop
with this whole thing?" Mac snapped, then turned to Josh, who was almost at
the door. "And you sit down, beanpole, we got to talk. Now."

 

Belle wasn't sure how to fight this, but she would that's for sure. She
loved Josh and he loved her. She didn't care what Mac said about the wedding
and Josh's not understanding. He does understand. He loves her. 

 

Very carefully, remembering his friends issues with Standard, Mac explained
everything to his friend- the sudden reappearance of thier friend, the
children, the doubts about the wedding, the feelings of both women now
determined to make him theirs - tabling Belle's objections, his questions,
and comments from both until he'd gotten through it all, afraid that to
address them before he finished would be to risk not finishing. When at last
he'd told all, he looked at his friend and asked, "Did you get all that? Any
questions?" 

 

Josh sat there in stunned silence. For all the questions screaming inside
him, he had no clue where to begin. 

 

"We know it's hard to sort out." Belle said from the couch. "I mean what she
did it was just wrong, it was a violation." 

 

Josh looked at Belle and shook his head, then and headed for the door,
pausing only when he reached it to ask very quietly, "Where?"

 

"Josh," Belle got to her feet and walked towards him. "you just got out of
sick bay. You can deal with this later. We should go home and let Mac take
care of Anna and the babies. They've been born you know. You're an uncle."

 

"Please, Mac," Josh asked again. "Where?"

 

Mac told Josh where N'Ellie's cabin was, and his own as well. "You really
need to do this now, kid?" Mac asked. 

 

Josh nodded, then headed out the door without looking back.

 

Belle watched Josh leave, fear gripping her heart. Her breath caught in her
lungs before she hissed it out. She pushed Mac out of the way and then left
as well. For a moment she thought about following Josh but in the end she
simply went to their cabin to wait. 

 

Josh arrived outside N'Ellie's door and tapped lightly, then waited, still
ponding all the things Mac had just told him.

 

Giving N'Ellie time alone with the babies, Jo stepped to the door to answer
it. When the doors parted she looked at the thin young man and thought he
looked familiar. "Yes?"

 

Seeing the unfamiliar woman at the door, Josh shook his head.
"...sorry...wrong cabin..." 

 

It was his eyes that told Jo that he wasn't. "Nellie's in the nursery." She
pointed to the door and stepped aside. 

 

Josh paused a moment, drawing a breath and nodded. "Thank you," He
near-whispered as he stepped in nervously and made his way to the indicated
room.

 

Angelina was snuggled in her mother's arm while N'Ellie hovered over
Gabriel's crib her telepathic lullaby having becoming a soft verbal one. 

 

"You didn't answer my question," Josh said quietly from the doorway, taking
in the image of mother and children, struggling with the idea that they were
really his.

 

She'd have jumped in not for the infant in her arms. Her heart however, did
stop.  "And what question would that have been?" 

 

Josh stepped over to where she was and peered into the crib, carefully not
looking at her as he asked again, 'Where were you?"

 

"As good as dead." She replied. She turned to put their daughter into her
own crib and then wrapped her arms around herself. "So much happened
afterwards.. I ended up at some point on a station before going back to my
foster parents on Earth."

 

Josh shook his head. "And them?"

 

"I realized I made a mistake, I made the wrong choice." She walked over to
the rocker and pulled Joanna's croshayed shawl off the back and wrapped it
around herself, it was her security blanket. "But by the time I realized
this I was told you were dead. I thought I'd lost you for a second time. I
was offered the chance to have at least part of you in my life, I couldn't,
wouldn't, make the same mistakes twice."

 

Josh swallowed hard, unsure how to respond to that. "Tell me the rest.
Please." he asked at last.

 

She looked at him for a long moment and then nodded. She walked past him and
back out into the living room. Jo had gone to her own room. Walking over to
the small decanter on her table she reached for it and then remembered she
couldn't drink. Sighing she went to the small ice box and pulled out a box
of orange juice instead. Her hands shook as she out ice in a glass. "Do you
remember the Vulcan that showed up on the Santa Ana just before she went
down?" 

 

Josh shuddered visibly as he nodded. He remembered.

 

She picked up the glass of juice while holding the shawl around her
shoulders tightly with the other hand as memory and memory played through
her mind on fast forward. "The reason no one could find my while the ship
was going down was because. I was. He had me cornered.. Forcing. in my
mind.." She set the glass down before she could drop it. "It was all done
telepathically." 

 

Josh's eyes went wide. That was wrong. No Vulcan would do that. But then he
remembered who they were discussing. He wasn't a typical Vulcan. He'd had no
morals, no scruples. He would have. Josh nodded to show he understood and
that she could continue.

 

"He left me in depths of the ship." She went on as she began to move around.
She needed to move, to be able to feel the space around her. She adjusted
pictures, moved pillows on the couch. She really couldn't understand how she
didn't drive Deanna out of her mind during their sessions. "A friend of my
foster father found me. It was his station I ended up on, his wife who told
me she could help me hold on to you. I didn't agree right away, I was too
messed up. I went to Betazed then to Q'onoS. My grandfather arranged for me
to see someone. When I felt stronger, alive again, I went back and told
Jenna I wanted what she offered. I wanted you, them. Once I was pregnant I
went home to Joanna, then back to my grandfathers when I heard you were
alive."

 

Josh shook his head to show he didn't understand. "How are they?" he asked,
hoping she'd understand the question.

 

"Jenna and the people she works for, the admiral she's married to, well
they're less then ethical people." N'Ellie said softly as she sank onto the
coffee table top. "She was a member of the medical team that first evaluated
you when you were rescued from the mines." She couldn't look at him. "She's
a very odd collector." 

 

Josh looked angry and humiliated as the full meaning of her words came to
him.That she of all people could condemn what had been done to it and yet
still take part in it in this way. To be a party to such a violation and ask
him to simply accept it. This from one who claimed to love him?  "You call
them less than ethical, but you still took part in it. What does that make
you?" he asked quietly, his voice filled with pain and rage. He drew a
breath forcing calm. "I will want time with them." He told her simply in a
painfully calm and toneless voice. 

 

"I never said I was any better then them." N'Ellie replied as she finally
looked up to meet his gaze. "I made the full and knowing decision to use the
material offered to me, stolen from you, to have your children." She got to
her feet, still looking at him. "And I don't regret it. My children, our
children, are beautiful and wonderful and the best thing I will ever do in
my life time. There's no need to look at me that way because it's no worse
then the way I look at myself. An unethical, manipulative, whore." Tears
welled in angry eyes as N'Ellie turned away from him and walked over to her
window. "You're their father and I want you in their lives, but I draw the
line at Mrs. Garrity." The pain her voice couldn't be hidden. 

 

"Annabelle is my wife, a part of my life. Part of their family. Like it or
not." he answered coldly, refusing to be swayed by tears he no longer
trusted. "We all draw lines. In the end, they don't mean much, N'Ellie. I
drew lines too. You let them cross them. I trusted you." Too angry to risk
saying more then, he turned and walked out.

 

N'Ellie simply stood there looking out the window at the ships coming and
going from the station. That wasn't what she'd wanted to happen, but when
had anything in her life happened the way she wanted? She wanted Josh to be
apart of her and the babies lives, but she meant it when she said that bitch
wouldn't get near her children, wife or no wife. 

 

"Everything alright, love?" Jo asked when she came out of her rooms. 

 

"No but they will be." N'Ellie replied as she turned from the window. "Can
you see about getting me a long rang comm. connection? I think I need to
call home." 

 

The older woman simply nodded and went to do as she was asked. 

 

N'Ellie headed back into the nursery. She picked up a fussy Gabriel and took
him to the rocker. "Don't worry my little warrior, mere will fix this and if
I can't Grandpa Darius will."

 

Several long hours later, Mac's voice came across her com. "McEntire to
Coyne, is Josh still there?"

 

Reaching a hand out from under her shawl, N'Ellie tapped the comm. badge on
her side table. "He left hours ago. He walked out, he hates me, you can tell
her she's won." 

 

Mac sighed. "Apparently not. He's not there, either. Left here to see you
and hasn't turned up since. I guess nobody wins this time."

 

"I'm tired Mac." She replied hollowly. "You can try to throw water on me and
melt me some other time. Try the holodecks and take a staff. Coyne out."

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