On reviewing her TOS counterpart

[drcmarcus]

I'm sorry, I need a moment to process this.

A child? I find that incredibly hard to believe. I know myself. I wouldn't be so foolish as to allow for a mistake like that and Starfleet contraceptive implants are incredibly effective. Not to mention that Jim... I can't see Jim... it's just too much to wrap my mind around. Which is exactly why I presume it was a mistake and certainly not something that was planned by any means. Never mind the total lack of a sexual relationship.

Not that Jim isn't a wonderful man. I just can't picture him as someone interested in the idea of children. Or settling down with one woman long enough for that to even be a topic of conversation. It couldn't end any way but badly. In fact it did end badly. One could argue that it started badly seeing as that other version of... of me didn't even tell the boy who his father was. I find that incredibly cruel and don't like in the least what it says about me or my character.

Horrible life choices aside, none of that really matters. The circumstances there were completely different so I don't see why you felt the need to share that bit of information. I was perfectly fine not knowing. Ignorance is bliss. As it is I don't think I'll be able to look the Captain in the eye for quite some time without feeling the need to apologize for something that hasn't even happened.

You are a cruel mun and I am appalled by your lack of decency in this matter. I believe a stiff drink is in order.

Comments

[ihearyou]

Is there something I should know?

[drcmarcus]

*Carol blinks up at a face that she knows though that knowledge was earned through history rather than familiarity.

Bollocks.*

No, ma'am.

[warriorsmind]

Ah right, your a mother in your "other life." David was it? Kirk is rather the party type isn't he? Good thing your human medicine has advanced so quickly, might catch something, if you do ever decided to mate with him.

At least your race didn't change drastically.

[drcmarcus]

You don't get to speak to me about any of it. Not at all, not a single word or so help me...

[warriorsmind]

Or you'll what, exactly, Carol?

[drcmarcus]

I will find a way to make you eat your words.

*Okay, so maybe threatening madmen wasn't the smartest thing to do but the loathing she felt towards him made her more than a little irrational.*

[warriorsmind]

Still angry with me I see...

Fine lets change the subject, shall we?

...I am sure you saw the original me's fate. [A bitter smile.]

Doesn't that please you?

[drcmarcus]

Angry? You think I'm angry? I loathe your very existence.

*His fate was too kind if you asked her.*

Not nearly enough. It was as a direct result of your alternate's interference that that boy wound up dead. You set the pieces into motion with your need for revenge. What happened to you was far too kind.

[nothing_but_my_bones]

Got some bourbon in my office if you need it.

[He keeps it on hand for those moments of, "I really didn't need to know that."]

[drcmarcus]

That would be much appreciated, Doctor McCoy.

*She's having one of those moments in a very big way even if it happens to be under different circumstances.*

[warriorsmind]

Yes, yes.

You saw his fate, the alternate me suffered far longer than dying on a ship. I think death was better off than the life he had suffered those years. On that planet, that Kirk left him on.....

[He knows that eventually it became a fight for survival and that people, his people killed one another. His wife whom, knowing himself would have cared deeply for human or not died a terrible death to those creatures. And that the boy his alternate self viewed as a son died in his arms. He knew why the alternate version of him had done the things he did, and if put in that situation he would have done the exact same.]

You blame him for the boy's death? That's a bit of a reach....He didn't have him fight for a Vulcan's life on a dying planet. A human thinking he can take on a Klingon.....

Eventually that little science project would have been used and the Klingons would have caught wind of it and wanted it.

[nothing_but_my_bones]

Thought you might say that.

[He produces the bottle and two glasses, pouring each of them a few fingers.]

Hell of a thing to find out. [McCoy adds before taking a swallow of bourbon. Might be a very Southern thing o' him, but far as he's concerned there's really only one thing to do at times like these]

[drcmarcus]

It came as quite the shock to the system.

*Bless the doctor and his seeming ability to always be prepared. Especially right now.

Carol takes a slow sip of the liquor and savors the taste before taking a slightly larger one for the burn of it down her throat.*

I still don't really understand a majority of it. The reasoning was so very flawed.

[nothing_but_my_bones]

[If working on the Enterprise has taught him anything, it's have the medical kit on standby, and the liquor ready at all times.]

I'm a doctor, not a temporal physicist so this is all over my head too.

[The one thing he does know, is that if she's anything like the other Spock, she probably had a very different life.

[He shrugs taking another sip himself.]

Well, I figure it must've made sense to her for some reason. Can't fathom what though.

[drcmarcus]

That world... what happened with the Narada was tragic. What happened to Vulcan was inexcusable, and then my father... they were all terrible things, but is it wrong to say I'm thankful we're not those people?

*To a degree Carol could understand it but coming from a divorced family where her father had been an active and loving part of her life up until a point, she couldn't imagine ever denying a child the chance to have a father. Or doing something like that to Jim. It was cold.*

She wanted to protect him. In the end it was a wasted effort.

[nothing_but_my_bones]

No, I can understand that. Can't help but wonder what it might have been like. Though, y'know, how different their lives are.

[He nods slightly.]

Guess it was.

[drcmarcus]

My thoughts exactly. You should have been left to suffer, horrible creature that you are. And that planet was teeming with life when that other version of you was left. There was no way Jim could have predicted what would happen to it.

*Not at the time. The Captain was not a cruel man. Had he known she doubted he ever would have let someone to that fate. He would have found an alternative. But Carol? Carol could blame Khan. Khan had been the one to set in motion the events that led to David's death. Even though he wasn't her son, he'd been the son of what that Carol Marcus had become.*

A dying planet that would never have existed if not for you and your schemes. Even if the Klingons had heard of it, the project would have had more time. It would have been more stable. It might have... it might have done some real good. That doesn't change the fact that David was a bright boy who didn't deserve the fate he got.

[drcmarcus]

I suppose we'll always wonder to a degree-- those that know at least. There are those that walk around blissfully ignorant of what things might have been like for them otherwise. Sometimes I envy those people.

[warriorsmind]

The boy died a warriors death, a brave honorable death. You should be proud of what he did to save the Vulcans.

[ Kirk was more cruel than he let on, Khan had seen the way Kirk had treated him when he was younger, before he knew Khan he was already judging him, and that Khan hated Kirk for.]

I forget Kirk is a saint in your eyes...

[drcmarcus]

The fact remains that he never should have died. He was young, full of potential, and it was taken from him.

*That Jim Kirk was more cautious, and he had every reason to be. He was a man that went off his instincts and he'd been correct, hadn't he? Khan had gone so far as to attempt a mutiny aboard the Enterprise.*

Far from it. That doesn't change that for all his many faults he's still a good man, and a better Captain.

[nothing_but_my_bones]

[McCoy nods pensively.]

Gonna have to agree with you on that.

[drcmarcus]

A toast to ignorance then?

*She holds up her glass despite knowing she sounds a little on the bitter side.*

[warriorsmind]

Just think, Carol you could go shack it up with Kirk now and make a new David to have, I doubt his life would end the same way, he might even live and have long life.

[Oh he is going to get angry over that comment, he reaches over grabbing her shoulder roughly.]

Better, Captain?

[drcmarcus]

You are both crass and callous.

*Good. She's glad he's angry. She's angry. It's only fair she gets the chance to return the favor.*

He died to protect each and every one of us when he could have easily given up or chosen not to go alone.

[nothing_but_my_bones]

To blissful ignorance.

[He clinks his glass against hers before draining the last of the bourbon from it.]

Still not all bad.