Posted by Colonel Calvin Harris (Commanding Officer) in Shipwide Side Sim: Catching up with Lucas Holloway

Posted by Captain Molly Wright (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Shipwide Side Sim: Catching up with Lucas Holloway

Posted by Colonel Calvin Harris (Commanding Officer) in Shipwide Side Sim: Catching up with Lucas Holloway
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Even though Molly’s quarters were just like those of any other officer on board the Dresden, her choice in ‘décor’ was not the most traditional one. To the right, the wall leading into the small dine-in kitchen was lined with multiple unopened crates. To the left, there was a small standard Starfleet issue sitting area — it had a couch, an armchair, and a coffee table. Besides the crates, the only other personal items in the room were a small pile of books that sat on the table, and what looked to be a modern rendering of an old Earth photo album. Among the books were two of Erin’s yearbooks, and piled on top of the album were a few pictures of Erin as well. It looked like a small side project Molly had been recently working on.

Lucas smiled as he saw the yearbooks, he had each of the yearbooks the girls had been in a bookshelf in his home office along with tons of pictures from their childhood and a few others from important moments clearly taken with a telephoto lens. Although Lucas had long ago resigned himself to watching his beloved nieces grow up at a distance, he did his best to keep up with their lives… if even at arms reach.

Alongside the books there was a single framed picture. This one of a happy couple laying on the grass of what seemed to be a park. Lucas would be able to recognize both people in the picture — one clearly being his oldest niece, and the other the Dresden’s CO, Colonel Calvin Harris. Apart from that, everything else in the room was as Starfleet issued as they came.

The air felt caught in Lucas’ throat in the moment he saw the picture, stunned that one of his oldest friends was involved with his niece. He wasn’t… upset… more surprised at this unexpected turn of events. He knew the highlights of Calvin’s romantic past… his lost loves… and was one of a handful of people to know of his fling with now Lt. Colonel Devri Hudson following his divorce from Vanessa.

Walking inside, Molly didn’t wait for the doors to shut behind her uncle. Instead, she stopped on her tracks, turned to her guest, her arms crossed over her chest in a clear defensive stance. “Do you really think you can just waltz back into our lives?” She started in an aggressive tone. “You didn’t bother taking us away from dad when you had the chance, and after we left you didn’t seem too keen on looking for us either.” Molly paused for a second, but resumed shortly not giving Lucas time to respond. “Some of the best times we had were when you came to visit. I thought you were fond of us… it seems I was wrong.” She paced the small hallway as she talked. “And now… I find out that our family owns Holloway Heavy Industries! That you of all people had the resources to search for us! You…” Molly sat down on the couch, her voice cracking. It seemed that suddenly, everything she had bottled up inside for years was finally coming out. She shook her head. “Mom and dad fought about money all the time… after she died…” Molly glared at her uncle as if she had remembered something new. “Hell! Maybe she would not be dead if they weren’t so broke! Maybe dad wouldn’t have gone so hard into drinking if mom hadn’t died in the first place! If he didn’t need a dead end job to single handedly take care of his two infant daughters!” For the first time in her life, Molly found herself almost freeing her father from blame. She had found someone else to place it upon. “You… you could have changed everything… but you didn’t… Why the hell are you even here? Why do you even care?”

Molly

Lucas let Molly vent and get it all out of her system and then, methodically, Holloway responded to each question. “OK, first and foremost…” Lucas began with a sigh, but in a tone that was still a loving, caring one. “… I didn’t fly halfway across the Sector after personally requesting… hell… demanding an injunction from the President of the UFP to keep that lunatic from throwing your ass in prison for the rest of your life under some delusional belief that you would welcome me with open arms. I’m not stupid Gracie.”

Pausing, knowing that her next question was the one that had haunted him for years, Lucas patiently continued. “Don’t think for one second I didn’t want to come for you and your sister… because I did. I have and still do love you both more than you could ever know. I knew you were in San Francisco before you even tried stealing that bread off the cart at the Market. The only reason I didn’t come for you before was the fact I was in Grad School… in dorms… at NYU. I couldn’t have taken you on if I wanted to and certainly never knew Peter was as much of a prick to you girls until he was crying on my dorm room floor after you had left.”

A pang of guilt hit Molly, but only for a second, at the thought of their father in tears over their departure. For the first time in her life, she considered the pain her actions might have caused. But she shook the feeling away. After all, he was the reason why they had left in the first place. And she knew that she had made the right choice. Her brow furrowed slightly as she wondered how did he know about the bread stealing episode… but she let her uncle continue.

He wiped a tear from his eye and pushed on. “Gracie, again, I have never… ever stopped loving you girls… and our days together at Central Park have been some of the best of my life. I’m sorry Gracie… cause you’re right… I should have never left you in that mess and when it comes down to it, it is a shame I have carried all my life.”

Molly remembered those days fondly, and as he mentioned them, a small hint of a smile ghosted her lips.

Then came the hardest topic she could have raised. “Molly, your Grandfather’s personal physician, the doctor that attended to mine and your dad’s birth, beamed immediately to the hospital the night your sister was born and did everything in his power to save Mary’s life.” More tears came as he continued, his voice cracking. “You didn’t just lose your mom, Gracie, I lost the closest thing I had in this world to a sister. Your mother’s loss weighed on every member of the family because honestly… I think dad finally realized the impact of cutting your parents off. It was not something in my power to fix at the time and by the time it was, the two of you had found a great guy that loved you and did a hell of a job with ya both. I did what I could, I blocked any chance your dad might have had to interfere with the adoption, made sure Robert had whatever financial resources he needed to care for you girls, and when time came for tuition… I made sure your schooling fully funded. But we were always there… when you graduated from C.A. Riley, from the Academy… I watched… in person. I have never missed a Bruins event where Erin cheered and when she graduated last spring, I was there too. It was the least a failed uncle could do, be there to watch the two of you accomplish amazing things.”

As he spoke, Molly too was struggling to hold back tears. But to no avail. Her eyes glistened slightly as she understood the lengths that their uncle had gone through to still be in their lives.

Holloway closed his eyes for a moment before adding rather breathlessly. “I came because I care… I came because the President of the Federation contacted me when this mess hit the fan… I came because I have let you down enough in this life and I intend to do everything I can to help. Whether or not you want to ever have anything to do with me or your grandparents after this is up to you.”

Lucas

Questions flooded Molly’s mind and she sat down on the couch. Their grandparents had cut their parents off? Their uncle had been financing all the schooling they had done? Plus, he had been present at every major event in their lives? Molly seemed lost for a second, and Lucas would be able to see it in her frame. “So that’s why we never talked about them…” Molly muttered under her breath as if a sudden important realization had hit her.

Finally, Molly spoke again, almost as if she had regained her voice. “What do you mean, your parents cut my parents off? Does that mean…” He would almost be able to see her thoughts coming together. “… does that mean dad had money too? And that’s why we struggled so much? Why did they cut him off? What did he do?” Anger flashed in her eyes as she spoke.

“The day your father got bounced out of Fordham for poor grades…” Lucas began. “… he came home to find your mother in hysterics. 18 years old… together with Peter for less than six months, and she was pregnant… with you.” Holloway ran a hand through his hair before continuing. “Our father was livid to say the least. Your dad had a pregnancy scare with a girl his junior year of high school and dad told him in no uncertain terms that if he didn’t keep it in his pants and screwed up again, he’d be cut off. When he told them about Mary, common girl from a blue collar family in the Bronx, dad had had it. Although they met your mother several times, they made it clear that they thought they were being childish and the day they found out about you, took them out of their will.”

Molly didn’t know what to feel. In part, she felt guilty, knowing that everything that had happened had been because of her. Because she existed…

“If you’ve been at all those events… at my graduation… at Erin’s games… why didn’t you come and say hello?” For a moment, Molly’s expression saddened. “I… we would have loved to see you… why didn’t you say anything?”

Molly’s uncle sighed. “Gracie, don’t think I didn’t want to but…” He took a deep breath. “… by the time you were in high school, I thought it would be… inappropriate… to just stroll in like everything was perfect.”

“As for the funding…” Her face softened. “I had no idea… thank you.” She smiled at her uncle for the first time. Her eyes still watery. Speechless, she walked towards Lucas and, in an uncharacteristic gesture, wrapped her arms around the only family that, in her mind, she had left. As she did so, the interaction took Molly’s mind back to the past. To the days spent playing and laughing with her dad’s brother, and to the last time she had hugged him before they ran away.

Tears flowed from Lucas as he held his niece for the first time in nearly twenty years. It was a moment he had dreamed of and had longed for for so long that if it wasn’t for the seriousness of the visit, he’d have thought it a dream. “You’re quite welcome Gracie.” He said in a soft, cracked voice.

Sitting back down on the couch, Molly smiled briefly, as she pondered on whether to ask the question that had crossed her mind many times during the last eighteen years. With a sigh, she tried to speak as casually as possible. “So… is Dad still spending six nights a week at Mickey’s?”

Molly

As Lucas sat down across from Molly in the chair, the question hit Lucas like a ton of bricks and Molly would see its impact on his face as he looked away and took a slow, deep breath.

His expression… his expression told her everything she needed to know.

“Gracie… honey…” Holloway pursed his lips and then, with effort, pushed on. “… your daddy‘s gone baby.” He looked back at Molly, tears in his eyes. “Peter jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge 17 years ago. It was the night of what would have been your mom’s 29th birthday and a couple days after his lost his job with the Port Authority because of a goddamned failed sobriety test.”

Molly gasped slightly at the unexpected news. In her best days, she had hoped that her dad had found love again. A family that loved him and that he loved in return. A family that had made him a better man. Worth him giving up his drinking for. On her worst days, she wished he still roamed the streets, living the life he had built for himself. But she had never wished him dead.

Seventeen years… that had been a year after they left. The pang of guilt struck her again. It had been her. Her choice that had ultimately killed her father. She felt dizzy… sick… she could feel the world spinning around her and she closed her eyes. She couldn’t breathe. Getting up, Molly paced in the small hallway again, hands in her head, trying to straighten her thoughts… and fighting back tears.

Holloway could barely face his niece. “I…” His voice cracked. “… I’m so sorry you had to find out like this Gracie. Your dad was never the same after you & Erin left. He was a madman in his efforts to find you but… refused to go to the NYPD over fears he’d be arrested on child abuse charges. He had completely quit drinking for a while… totally focused on finding you girls. He even went to dad, who blew him off… for multiple reasons, the first being that by the time he did… Robert had you two and dad thought it best for his grandchildren not…” Lucas’ jaw clinched in anger. “… not to grow up with a loser for a father.”

Molly didn’t have words for the whole situation. She wanted desperately to believe her dad was a good man, but she found herself agreeing with her grandfather’s words. She thought about San Francisco, about the happiness she had been given growing up… all the opportunities she had had… all the while, her family stayed painfully behind… and in the meantime… in the meantime her dad killed himself.

“Your dad had his vices, Gracie…” Lucas continued. “… but he was a good man that just…” There were tears once more, this time for his lost brother. “… just couldn’t handle the challenges life put in his path. But he did love you girls… very much. It makes me sick to think of the life you all would have had had our parents not been so stuck up. I might still have my brother… and you girls… the family you deserved.”

Lucas

Shaking her head, Molly sat back down, tears streaking her cheeks. “No…” She said faintly. And then repeated the word more assertively. “No.” She looked at her uncle. “We had the family we deserved, Uncle Luc… Erin did, at least.” She fell silent for a moment, as if trying to figure out the words she wanted to say. “It’s my fault… all of it… You said it yourself… dad was cut off of the family because of me… because I existed. If it wasn’t for me, mom and dad would have lived well, maybe they still would have had Erin, and they might had had a good life.” She looked down at her shoes. “And then…it was my idea to run away… the decision that ultimately killed my father.” Molly’s tears stopped. She felt numb. “I guess I deserved the beatings after all… It was my existence that took everything away from him… his family, his wife, and lastly, his daughter.” It was clear that Molly was not referring to herself. “I deserved it.”

Molly

“Now don’t you go and start…” Lucas quickly chided his niece. “… cause every word out of your mouth just now tells me just how much you didn’t understand and wouldn’t have even if we’d have had this conversation last month, last decade or even the day your dad died.” Holloway dried his eyes and looked Molly in the face. “Gracie, nothing… not a goddamn thing… that happened to you, your sister, your mom or your dad is your fault and I never wanna hear that nonsense out of your mouth ever again.”

His tone was fatherly and not mean, but firm and insistent. “Your mother died because a worthless ass doctor didn’t do his job. My father sued that piece of garbage into the ground and made sure that bastard lost his medical license. It didn’t bring Mary back but it made damn sure no other family went through what ours did. Your father’s death was due to the damage a near lifetime of mental illness can take on the human soul. Peter was given every chance in this life and pissed it away… every damn time!”

Molly’s gaze was steady on Lucas’s as he spoke. It was clear that the affection and respect she had for him were almost to a fatherly level. And to a certain extent, her uncle had been almost more of a father to her than her father had ever been.

Lucas unconsciously cracked the knuckles in his right hand as he drew it closed. “Your mother nearly left him more times than I can count and don’t even get me started on the nights you & Erin slept at my dorm with me because of Peter’s drinking. The only thing your dad ever did right by that girl was to not abandon her. They were kids Gracie, stupid… horny… lazy kids that ended up with a baby and instead of taking an easy way out, they pulled together and pushed through.”

Molly pondered her uncle’s words. She remembered the nights. And even though she pretended not to know why they were staying at a university dorm with their uncle instead of staying at home, Molly had always known very well why the sudden sleepovers happened. She wondered how many midterms and finals, her and her sister had barged in on… For a moment, she wanted to argue that they should have taken the easy way out. It had been a lot less complicated for everyone. But instead, she kept her silence, letting her uncle continue.

“As for the man that raised you…” Lucas continued. “… had he not found you when he did, arrangements would have been made to bring you two back to Chesterfield. But after Robert became determined to raise you… we collectively thought it for the best. Honestly Gracie, had you girls came home to Chesterfield, mom & dad would have probably had a nanny raise you till you were both old enough to be shipped off to TJS and that would have been that. Robert, in my opinion, gave you girls the life you deserved.”

Lucas

Molly raised an eyebrow. “TJS?” She asked curiously.

Lucas chuckled. “Sorry, mine and your dad’s junior high… a boarding school called the Thomas Jefferson School. Oooold money kinda school.”

Molly thought about what would have been like to go to a boarding school… she had her own experience at C. A. Riley, but she was sure it would not have been the same thing.

Finally, Molly sighed. “Maybe you’re right… it’s just… it’s hard to think that it was not my fault when mom being pregnant with me was what triggered everything…” Thinking back at her own life and at the recent events, Molly shook her head. “… and for what?” She continued. “It’s not like I’ve done anything good with my life… Erin is set to be a brilliant scientist. Maybe she’ll change the world some day… but me? I’ve done nothing worth of notice… look at where I am… I thought I could change something being in Starfleet and all I managed to do was to be kicked out of my ship and now to serve as some sort of scapegoat for someone with delusions of grandeur… I can’t seem to do anything right…” She sighed again. “Maybe mom and dad should have taken the easy way out…” Molly paused for a moment. “I know what you’re going to say, Uncle Luc… but… it just feels like mom and dad’s death would be justified if I had done something important… but I’m pretty sure that if I died tomorrow, the universe wouldn’t miss me…” Her eyes darted to the picture of her and Cal. “I’ve disappointed more people than I helped in this life.” As she spoke, she reached forward and lowered the frame to face the table. It was just another reminder of yet another person that she had hurt by being around.

Molly

“I’d miss you…” Lucas said with a sad tone, the thought of the loss of his niece nearly making him sick. “… and…” He added with a soft smile. “… I’m pretty damn sure Calvin would miss you too. How long have you & Raven been together anyway, Gracie?”

Lucas

For the first time, a soft smile crossed Molly’s features, only to quickly fade away, as the last question left his lips. Molly looked at her uncle, an eyebrow raised quizzically. Then she shook her head. “I shouldn’t be surprised that you know him… after all, you seem to know everyone today…”

With a soft scoff, Molly continued. “Calvin wouldn’t miss me.” She stated dryly. “I don’t know what that FCIS Agent got through his head, he believes I am guilty as charged. Even if everything goes for the best, I doubt I can ever get his trust back.” Her expression was visibly saddened by the thought.

“Calvin was assigned as the Marine Commander of the Montgomery, four years ago. That’s when we met. He eventually became the Turing’s Marine Commander when I was made Captain. He was always a good friend… was there when I needed him the most, and supported me through some of the hardest times…” For a second, her smile was back as her mind recalled distant memories. “Commander Harper… his daughter was our Chief of Security. He dated her for a while before she was killed… and I tried my best to be there for him.” Molly shrugged. “When I was kicked out of the Turing, he was there… he left because I did.” She scoffed slightly again. “A year later, when I came back from the Farm, he was the first person I visited, and seemingly the only person that truly understood what I had been through. I thought he was just a womanizer that gets laid with everything that walks, but turns out he can be sweet and caring when he wants… I found someone in him I never knew was there… and one thing led to another… we were together for two years. And now… now he’s gone.”

“How do you know him anyway?”

Molly