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He’d been waiting a long time for this day, but somehow he’d known it was coming, and soon. He hadn’t wanted it too, he’d actually kept his fingers crossed that he’d never get to make this meeting. That he would maybe see Erika first, and tell her that he had watched over her for 200 years. He instead stood there, beside the Captain’s Chair that had been Erika’s for far too short a time. Will, in his purview anyway. He now knew that all those scans, all those times T’Pol had pointed out that ship, she had been pointing to where Erika was, and he’d always written it off. He would one day have to apologise to her for that, but today he needed to greet someone else, and share what they had in common.
She came up through the turbolift, a confused look on her face. She knew what had happened, she’d told Erika that the Symbiont came first, so that was what they had to focus on. Because of that, she was now likely to join him here. At least his lonely vigil possibly wouldn’t be so lonely. "So, you ended up here too?" He said by way of greeting, smiling when she looked in his direction.
"President Archer!" She almost jumped, and Jon had to chuckle. She was a vastly experienced Starfleet Captain who had been married to the Starfleet Chief of Staff for the last 20 years. Why she jumped upon seeing him he wasn’t quite certain, but he was sure that it would be answered, at least in part. The use of his title had surprised him, he hadn’t been the President for many years, and by now was probably a footnote in the history textbooks.
"I just go by Jon around here, especially to you.” He smiled, hoping she’d remember that. He had always hated the title, and had prefered people just call him Jon. That was probably because of Erika, he didn’t think she’d ever referred to him by rank in the 16 years they’d spent together before the attack. He shook his head to get that particular memory out of his mind, and instead focused on the smaller woman on the other side of the chair. “You're Ezri, right, Erika's wife?"
"You know about that?" She asked incredulously, and he had to smirk. There was little he didn’t know about Erika’s life now. He knew she had become close friends with Ezri’s former XO, Sam Bowers, whom he was sure was going to be there to help Erika through this loss, yet another loss. He knew a lot. Some he liked to forget, or he just forgot in all the other knowledge he had.
"Of course I do, I've kept a watch on her, seen all the things she has done to get where she is now.” He had been so proud of her, and had gotten to speak to her once, briefly and almost 20 years earlier. When she had been almost destroyed by the Borg. He had told her to hang on, just as he had in their time, when she’d been held by the Orions. He had told her then to hold on and be happy. Out of everything Jon could say, Ezri had made her happy. “You made her happy."
"She still missed you." Ezri mumbled, so quietly that he almost missed it. He couldn’t help but frown at that. Why hadn’t he found her sooner. He probably shouldn’t wish that, Erika had a good life now, but he still regretted that that life hadn’t been with him. They had made so many plans. He once again had to shake himself of those lost years and try to do everything he could to focus on the present, on the conversation he was having now. Not on what could have happened too many years earlier.
"I know, I missed her all those years too.” That much was true. He’d never forgotten her, and had certainly never stopped missing her. All he had been able to do was look at the photos they’d taken over the years and dedicated everything he did to her. “I never took the time to tell her enough that I loved her." He muttered, more to himself than to Ezri, but he knew that she would pick up on it.
"She knew. She knew all along."
"Now she gets to miss both of us." He said with a shrug, almost instantly regretting those words. Erika was always left alone. Maybe not purposefully, but she was. He had seen her memories of Veronica’s death, and had felt the continual pain. A pain that still lasted, though Erika hid it better now. Those three trees and the grave it held were the things that haunted Erika the most from her time on New Erigol. She had lost her best friend the day Veronica died, and now there was another scar on her heart, this one bearing Ezri’s name.
"Don't put it like that." Ezri said to him, and the tone she used was almost like a slap in the face. He needed to say it though, they couldn’t pretend she wasn’t going to miss Ezri, because they both knew better.
"It's the truth. Erika has a sorry habit for doomed romances." He chuckled ever so slightly. It was hard to related to Ezri, knowing she had only just died. Which made it even stranger. He hadn’t arrived on Columbia’s bridge until a few months later, when he had decided to search for Erika again. When he found the bridge he had decided to make it his home until Erika returned there.
"Do you think she'll be OK?" Ezri asked a while later, and Jon just looked at the active viewscreen, at the moment Erika was sleeping, which was a relief. He liked to know she was getting enough sleep, and that she was healthy enough to sleep. Whether Erika would be alright, that was another question. But she had been through worse and survived.
"In time. She's old enough to not show when she's struggling.” He shook his head. She had always been stubborn. Hard headed and certain that she could get through anything alone. Maybe now she would know she needed to let someone help her, be it Sam or her children. “She'll depend on Sam a lot more now."
"At least she has Sam, he'll be a good friend to her. And the girls” Ezri nodded, then smiled shyly at him. “He’ll make sure she can go on.”
"It's funny. We were born more than 200 years apart, but we both had the joy of spending 20 years of our lives with that amazing woman." He sighed, thinking about Erika and everything they had done together. He was sure he could find some stories that Ezri hadn’t heard, and he would make sure that she gave him some of her stories. Ezri’s life with Erika. The details, the things he missed. Just Erika’s life. That was what he wanted to know.
"At least she has Sam, and the twins." She repeated, maybe trying to convince herself more than trying to convince him. He already knew that Erika would be fine, and that she would know what was happening even in the worst throes of grief.
"You got farther into making a family than I did. I would have loved to be the father of her children. I assume she told you we lost a baby once." He hadn’t spoken about that with anyone but Trip and Erika. Trip had known all his secrets by the time he’d died, and Jon had then had to keep them bottled up. He was certain that Erika would have told her wife though. It wasn’t something you could keep bottled up, not from someone you loved.
"She did. It was something we thought about before going ahead with the twins.” Ezri confirmed then patted him on the shoulder in a friendly way. “You know, I told her that one day I wished I could meet you. Tell you how much I admired you, and how I hoped that I was living up to what you'd expect in Erika's partner." He wondered how long that had been bugging at her, at least it was something he could reassure her about. There were some things that he couldn’t say, but this was one he could.
"You were just what I wanted for her, Ezri. Rike has always been special, since the day I met her. When she went missing I felt like my life was over, but I had something I could focus on, and I kept busy, right up until retirement.” He sighed. That was all true. He hadn’t been able to grieve because he never let himself. Not until he was far too old for it to matter. He hoped that maybe now he could explain why he had been afraid of meeting her. “It wasn't until then that it hit me that the day Columbia went missing, I lost the love of my life. I think the hardest part for me is that, I don't know who the love of her life is. You or me."
"You. I don't have a doubt in my mind.” Ezri said instantaneously, and Jon wasn’t sure if she was truthful or just humouring him. He just stared at her until she began speaking again. “I know she loves me, and I know that we were meant to be together. But we're all only given one soulmate, and you were hers. One day she'll get to tell you that herself."
"I hope so. Thank you, Ezri, for taking such amazing care of her.” He pulled the tiny Trill into his arms for a hug, then stepped away a little again and let out a low chuckle. “It's hard to know there is someone else who cares about her the way you do, doesn't it?"
"It's going to be hard if she does ever join us here. Because I know she'll go to you, and after more than a millenia I'm not going to begrudge her that. But I miss her already."
"I still miss her. She has an effect, doesn't she?" He laughed, thinking about everything that Erika had shown him and taught him over the years. Everything that they had done had ended up bringing him to this moment. He could trace everything good in his life back to the moment he had met Erika Hernandez in that hangar at the Warp 5 project.
“That she does.” She trailed off, and all he could do was take a breath and look to the viewscreen, watching Erika as she slept peacefully. No matter how much he wanted to see her, to hold her in his arms again and tell her that this time he wasn’t going to leave her alone again. They’d be in it together this time. All along the long winding road.