Fork in the Road
Posted on July 12th, 2017 by Alexis Wright and Kathryn Harper

by Alexis Wright and Kathryn Harper

The antique motorcycle had been meticulously maintained over the course of several centuries, and although some upgrades had been made, such as a micro-replicator that automatically replenished the supply of gasoline, driving it was largely the same as it was when it was new. It had been cared for by several members of an antique motoring club of which Kathryn Harper was a member, and now sat in a San Francisco garage, awaiting its next journey. Clad in riding leathers, she approached the motorcycle with her helmet under her arm, a travel bag in one hand, and the other hand clasped in that of her lover, Alexis Wright. Their footfalls echoed through the garage until they reached the bike and began to stow their luggage in the bike’s saddlebags.

After a quick visual inspection of everything by Harper, she lowered the motorcycle to its wheels and began to walk it out of the garage. “Everything looks good, and we do not want to keep your father waiting. Are you ready for another ride on this beast?” she asked, grinning back at Wright while leaning over the handlebars.

Wright had just finished pulling her long brown hair into a loose pony atop her head, and was preparing to don the smaller, lightweight helmet that matched her new ShockVinyl suit when Harper spoke to her. She looked up with a bright smile and said, “I’ve been looking forward to this for days. This… beast, as you call it, is quite an exciting mode of transportation, I must admit.” Her excitement was clearly evident in her speech, and she was obviously less apprehensive about this than she had been the last time. Closing the streamlined helmet over her head, she waited for Harper to do the same and watched appreciatively has her leather-clad lover mounted the machine before climbing on behind her. “I’m ready when you are,” she said once she was in position, using Harper’s form to hold herself steady with her knees and stabilize with her hands.

Harper threw her weight down onto the motorcycle’s kickstarter, and the engine roared to life, rumbling beneath them. She clicked on her helmet’s HUD, which interfaced with the bike’s computerized upgrades, and once she had determined that all systems were performing nominally, Kate applied some throttle and picked up her feet as they slowly rolled out onto the old street. “And here we go!” she added as commentary once they turned north onto Park Presidio Boulevard, excitement creeping into her voice despite having driven this motorcycle numerous times before. Like Wright, she had also been looking forward to the trip; it wasn’t often that she got the chance to do this outside of the holodeck, and the open road was alluring, especially with Lexy riding with her.

Adjusting for a firmer grip, Wright held on to Kate and leaned with the turns, her exhilaration matching that of her companion. Prior to the trip, she’d spent some time researching the sort of music that had been associated with this machine, intending it as a surprise. “I’ve taken the liberty of selecting some period-appropriate listening material… I hope you approve? Computer, play ‘Born to be Wild,’ low volume.”

“Yes! I love it!” Kate cackled with delight. As the motorcycle climbed the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge, through the Presidio and the Starfleet Headquarters south campus, she gleefully added, “Computer, turn it up!” Once the buildings fell away, the bridge finally towered ahead of them and the horizon seemed to open wide, revealing the panorama of the San Francisco Bay to the right and the Golden Gate opening out into the Pacific to the left. With the loud music encouraging her and the open road waiting enticingly ahead, Harper gunned the throttle. Exulting at the sensation of acceleration against the wind, the couple on the bike crossed the iconic bridge past the north campus of Starfleet Headquarters and into the Marin headlands, looking for adventure and whatever came their way.

—–

Days later, Bill Wright sipped at his after-dinner cup of coffee to cover a smile as he watched his daughter and her lover show off the holograms of their trip together with such obvious humor and affection. Ever since they’d arrived that afternoon, he’d been struck by how his little Rosie had bloomed; as the three of them had prepared and then eaten the evening meal together, the conversation stimulating and lively, he became ever more certain that he should thank his lucky stars for the day his daughter had met Kate Harper. The past months had been a trying time for all citizens of the Federation; losing contact with Alexis had been terrifying for him, even moreso because of the loss of his wife, but now it seemed that he needn’t have worried, as this pair had been near the center of it all and had somehow come out even stronger. He’d only met Kate a couple of times, but it was clear that she made Alexis happy, and he couldn’t help but love her for that. As the evening progressed, Bill found himself unwilling to end the conversation despite the hour, and surmised that they felt the same from their stifled yawns coupled with insistences that they were not tired; laughter and comfortable conversation filled the room until exhaustion drove them all to bed in the wee hours of the morning.

The three of them spent much of the following day together as well, and Bill was quite disappointed that a previous commitment pulled him away in the afternoon. He hurried through his appointment and arrived home early, eager to spend more precious time with his little girl and her love before their scheduled departure. The moment that he entered the house, however, his words of greeting died on his lips, forgotten when strains of a haunting melody in a familiar timbre found his ear and filled his heart with an aching tenderness. His footsteps carried him, almost as if entranced, to the open door of the music room at the other end of the house. Leaning against the wall just outside the door, he listened with tears welling in his eyes at the slow, beautiful duet between a flute and the violin belonging to his late wife, Valerie. His grief for her was no longer fresh, but those strings had been silent since the day he lost her just a few short years ago, and he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed the sound of them echoing through their home. As the last notes of the song faded into silence, Bill shook himself back to the present. Making a token attempt to swipe the tears from his cheeks, he entered the doorway with a sad smile.

When he looked into the room, he found his daughter holding her mother’s violin and sobbing with the arms of Kate Harper thrown around her, flute still clutched in one hand. The sight only made him love both of them even more, and the sense of relief he felt that his little Rosie finally had this kind of love in her life made him draw a shaky breath. Alexis looked up at the sound and noticed him standing there, smiling at her through his tears. “Daddy!” she cried, launching herself into his arms and sobbing anew. He held her close, aware of Kate standing nearby, swiping away her own tears and composing herself before jumping into action, setting down her flute and retrieving Valerie’s violin and bow from Lexy’s shaking hands. She set them reverently in the case and, not wanting to intrude, decided to leave Lexy and her dad alone. Before she reached the doorway, though, Bill reached out an arm and pulled her into the embrace for a moment. He held them both tightly and whispered, “I’m so very proud of both of you. Valerie would be, too. Thank you for bringing music back into this house.”

Bill released her a short while later, not wanting her to feel awkward. “Thank you, Katie. Is it okay if Rosie and I join you in a short while?” Kate gave him a solemn nod, then reached out to smooth Lexy’s hair and give her hand a parting squeeze, feeling warm when Lexy squeezed her hand in return. When she left the room, she closed the door quietly behind her.

After the moment of grief had passed, Lexy and Bill sat in the music room, talking. Their conversation had begun with Valerie, then moved to music, and finally to Kate. “Making music together was actually one of the first things that drew me to her. Do you remember when Mom found out I was homesick and not practicing aboard Atlantis, and she sent me a holodeck recreation of this room? It’s something I’ve shared with no one else, but I shared it with her, even when we were nothing more than friends,” Lexy explained. “She just makes me feel… alive. I’m not sure what it is. I love the spark of creativity that goes into everything that she does.”

Bill smiled, once again noting the flush in her cheeks and sparkle in her eyes when she spoke of Kate. He’d seen it many times over commlink, but this was the first opportunity they’d had to have a private conversation in person in quite some time. “It’s wonderful that you both have such a love for music. It would have made your mother so happy for me to make music with her, but I just don’t have the talent… it seemed almost criminal to mar the beauty of her music with anything that I could do.”

“Daddy, you know it’s not like that,” Lexy chided, making a moue at him. “It’s about the…”

“Yes, yes, the joy of it, I know, your mother explained it a thousand times,” Bill interrupted with a chuckle. “I still only wanted to watch her play. She was so beautiful when she was doing something that she loved.”

When his daughter didn’t immediately respond, he looked over, catching her with a faraway look in her eyes, a familiar expression that told him that she was thinking, trying to sort out something important. Knowing better than to interrupt, he waited, and was surprised when she suddenly looked at him with a determined set to her jaw.

“I feel… exactly the same way about Kate. I love her, Daddy. It’s confusing, and it’s not rational, and I don’t really understand it, but I love her. And she loves me, I really don’t understand that part, but I know it’s true.” She looked down at her hands in her lap for a moment, which he knew for her signified a lack of confidence, but the resolve in her eyes when she looked up again was unmistakable. “I love Kathryn Harper, and I want to support her, and be at her side, and help her do the things she loves. All of my most positive projections for the future include Kate. I think… I mean, I… I want to spend my life with her. I think it’s supposed to be that way.”

Bill looked down at his daughter, almost as if he could memorize her face in this moment. He and Valerie had always supported Alexis in whatever she chose to do, but they had worried that she would never feel secure enough in her emotions to make this choice. Our little girl is finally spreading her wings, Valerie. He smiled affectionately, brushing the hair out of her face with his hands and leaning down to kiss her forehead. “You know, you’ll always be my little Rosie no matter what, but having spent time with your intended, I think you’re making an excellent choice. I’d be thrilled to have Katie as a daughter-in-law, and I know your mother would agree. In fact…” He paused, considering. “…I’ve been holding on to your mother’s wedding ring, but I think she would want you to have it. You can give it to your love when you’re ready to ask her. What do you think?”

Lexy looked at him in disbelief, her eyes brimming with tears. “Oh, Daddy…”

—–

“Shine and rise!” Kate’s cheerful voice rang through the morning quiet as she tried to rouse Lexy from her slumber. “If we do not leave early, we will not have much time at Crater Lake! I will take the shower first… Bill was looking for you. I think he wants help with breakfast; I offered, of course, but he would not have any of it.”

Lexy dragged herself out of bed, pulled on a robe and shuffled blearily to the kitchen to find her father preparing breakfast the old-fashioned way. Yawning, she leaned against the counter and asked, “You needed me for something, Daddy?”

Bill stepped over to kiss her on the forehead before returning to his task. “Good morning, my Rosie sleepyhead! Doesn’t this look great? Katie was up early too, so we went to the farmer’s market together. She’s excellent company, and has a good eye for fresh fruit! Not to mention this stuff,” he added, indicating the pan of sizzling bacon before him.

The savory aroma made Lexy’s stomach growl. “Well, she’s in the shower now, and said that you needed my help… but it seems like you have everything under control?” She said, glancing around the room at the nearly complete meal.

“Actually… I just wanted to get you alone,” Bill whispered with a conspiratorial wink, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small package.

When the time to depart came two hours later, the three of them stood in front of the house to say their goodbyes. “Next time, maybe we can arrange for your brothers to come as well, hmm?” Bill said, hugging his daughter tightly. “Love you, Rosie. Miss you.” For her part, Lexy hugged him back just as tightly. “I love you and miss you too, Dad. I’ll be in touch soon.”

Once Bill finally released Lexy, he turned to Kate and exchanged a hug with her as well. “I’m really happy to know you, and I hope to see you again soon, Katie,” he said, then pulled back and held her by the shoulders, looking at her for a moment. “You’re going to need a nickname, though, to be accepted into this family. Your name is Kathryn, so… Kitty.” He beamed at her, willfully oblivious to her dubious expression. “Be safe, Rosie and Kitty! See you soon!” He stood and watched them mount the antique motorcycle, noting with amusement the stares of the neighbors as Kate brought the engine thundering to life, and waved as they roared away down the street. “Rosie and Kitty,” he chuckled to himself, turning to go back inside once they were out of sight.

Lexy waved back until she could no longer see him, listening over the helmet comms as Kate mused about her new nickname. She felt different than she had when they’d set out in San Francisco, but she couldn’t fathom how the added weight of a ring made her feel somehow lighter.