Star Trek Voyager characters are the property of Paramount Pictures.

Way The Wind Blows

Epilogue

FORTY YEARS LATER

Sarah Marie Janeway, a pretty young girl of fourteen with long black curly hair and sapphire blue eyes, stood before a shelf of framed photographs in her grandparents cozy cabin. She picked up a picture that had been taken of her father just minutes after he was born, and tears welled in her eyes at the happy face of her grandmother. She had seen the picture many times when she was growing up, but now she looked at it as though she was looking at it for the first time. After studying it for a while, she reached for the picture that had stood next to it for as long as she could remember. It was very similar, only there were two babies in this picture, her identical twin aunts, Elizabeth Ann and Emily Rose.

Behind her, Goldie, an old Labrador, slept soundly on a rich rust rug before a roaring log-fire. The animal slept most of the time and was generally oblivious to all that was going on around her.

Kathryn emerged from the kitchen, a glass of apple juice in each hand, and put the drinks down on a pine table next to the sofa. She looked remarkably young for her years. Her silver hair was swept back from her face in an elegant bob and the blue trousered twin-set she was wearing flattered her figure

"Looks like it's going to rain," Kathryn declared. "Let's hope it stays dry until your grandfather gets back from the village."

Sarah put the pictures back onto the shelf when Kathryn entered the room, but was not quick enough for her interest in the shelf to have gone unnoticed by her observant grandmother.

Kathryn went over to her granddaughter. "Looking to see if there are any new photos?"

"Yes," Sarah replied, not knowing what else to say.

Kathryn picked up a large picture from the end of the shelf. "This one's new. Your Aunt Milly sent it to me the other day."

Sarah took the picture and looked at it. There were quite a few people in the picture, all of them smiling happily at the camera before a backdrop of blue sky and white sand. At one end of the picture was her Aunt Lizzie, a very attractive woman with long silky black hair, chocolate brown eyes, and a familiar tattoo above her left eye, and on the other end was her Aunt Milly. To a stranger's eye it would have been almost impossible to tell the two women apart, but to Sarah it was easy. Her Aunt Lizzy's lips were slightly smaller than her Aunt Milly's, but her eyes were bigger. They also had very different personalities. Her Aunt Lizzy was in Starfleet, like her father, while her Aunt Milly taught history at a school in Indiana. Sitting inbetween the two women were three children; her younger cousins, Louisa, Darlene, and Thomas. Louisa and Thomas both had brown eyes and wavy chestnut brown hair, where as Darlene, her Aunt Lizzy's only child, had blue eyes, auburn hair, and a face full of freckles.

"It's nice," Sarah commented, hardly enthusiastically.

Kathryn put the picture back onto the shelf and then turned to her granddaughter. "What's wrong, darling? You've been ever so quiet since you got here."

"Nothing," Sarah replied.

"There's clearly something. Whatever it is, you can tell me."

Tears welled in Sarah's eyes. "I know the truth," she said quietly.

"The truth about what?"

Sarah was a moment in answering. "That I'm adopted."

"I see," Kathryn replied.

"Mom told me the other night. She thought it was time I knew." She paused. "It hurts so much, Grandma. I've always thought I was their real daughter, your real granddaughter... always thought I was a Janeway."

Gently, Kathryn lay her hand on Sarah's shoulder. "You are a Janeway. Never think otherwise. I might not be your biological grandmother, but in every other way I am. You're a Janeway, Sarah. And you're my granddaughter."

A tear ran down the young girl's cheek. "But how can you love me as much as you do the others?"

"Oh, Sarah," Kathryn said, drawing her granddaughter close. "Of course I love you as much as the others. Of course I do. I love you so very much."

"As much as you love Aunt Lizzy and Milly?"

"Every bit as much. Never think otherwise." She drew away from the young girl and put her hand to Sarah's wet cheek. "Wait here, darling. I've got something to show you."

Kathryn disappeared into her bedroom, and then reappeared a few moments later with a red velvet box in her hands.

"Your grandfather gave me this, a long time ago. It's always been very special to me."

She handed Sarah the box, and the young girl opened it. Inside, lying in white velvet, was an intricately engraved silver heart locket.

"It's beautiful," Sarah said, looking at the locket in awe. "May I open it?"

"Please do," Kathryn smiled.

With delicate fingers, Sarah carefully opened up the silver heart. Inside, two smiling faces in two old gray photographs looked back at her. The first face she recognized immediately as her grandmother's, but it took her a moment to identify the second.

"Is that Grandpa?"

"Yes," Kathryn replied. "Doesn't he look handsome with his wavy hair and mustache?"

"I guess he does," Sarah smiled.

"It was with much love that your grandfather gave me this locket, and it's with much love that I have cherished it all these years." She paused. "I won't always be here, darling. I'm an old woman and we're only given a short time in this world. When my time comes, I would like this locket to pass to someone who will treasure it as much as I have. I therefore decided long ago that I would leave it to my first born granddaughter. You're my first born granddaughter, Sarah. When I'm not here any more, I would like you to have it."

Tears welled in Sarah's eyes. "Oh, Grandma..."

"Just promise me you will always cherish it."

"I will," Sarah replied. "With all my heart."

Kathryn smiled at that and Sarah hugged her.

"I just hope you'll be here for a long long time."

Kathryn returned the girl's embrace and kissed her dark curly hair. "Don't worry, darling," she smiled. "There's still a few more years left in this old girl."

Sarah laughed happily at that, and then lay her head on her grandmother's welcoming shoulder.

THE END