A Family Photo
by D'Orba SandelsDisclaimer: This is a fan piece. It is not intended or distributed for profit. All the characters and situations mentioned in this piece belong to their respective creators/owners/etc.
Note: As you perhaps guessed that picture the Admiral talks of is the one from "11:59". This story makes more sense if you assume that Tom's father hasn't told Tom that he misses him and is proud of him in "The Pathfinder-Project".
Admiral Owen Paris stared at the photo in his hand. He had regular contact with Voyager had for a month but he still couldn't believe it. Thomas Eugene Paris, his son wasn't dead. He was alive. He was a Starfleet Officer on a fine starship, a Chief Helmsman and an Assistant in Sickbay. A son he could really be proud of. And he had finally realized that. *What kind of father I am that it takes my son to be supposed dead, then found alive far away in the Delta Quadrant, for me to realized what a fine son I have?* He never had been proud of Tom before, but when he looked back to past he could recall at least a thousand times when he could have been really proud of him. But he hadn't. Tom had always been trying to make him proud, but he had never succeeded. Owen hadn't even seen he had tried so hard, but now he saw and he felt guilty for that. *How could I have been that blind?*
He looked at the photo again. Tom looked so happy in it. He had never seen him that happy at home. He didn't know if he hadn't been happy, or if he just hadn't shown it to his farther. Tom had always been sensible around him; always carefully trying to be the perfect son. Owen had never know him as a child. He had always been a small adult around him for as long as he could remember. Tom had never been himself around him, never. *I don't even know my own son.* he thought to himself. *How could that have happened?*
Perhaps he knew the reason: Tom had been his first, and only, son. Owen loved his girls, but he had always wanted to have a son. He had been so happy when he finally got a one. He had even given Tom his own second name, too. He had wanted to show everybody that Thomas Eugene Paris was Owen Eugene Paris' son and that he believed in him. He had been so full of expectations that he didn't see that they just too high. Not even a boy as intelligent as Tom could have done what his father expected him to do - nobody could have. When Admiral Owen Paris finally realized all that, he felt dejected.
He had never wanted all that to happen, but it had and he couldn't change it. He looked at the photo a third time. In the front sat Kathryn Janeway, his pupil, with a glass in her hand. Next to her sat an alien man happily smiling at Captain Janeway and the bottle he held in one hand. It must be Neelix, the cook. To the right of Captain Janeway stood that Borg they had on the ship(a thing he still couldn't believe) nearly smiling. Right next to her stood Lt. Commander Tuvok, the Vulcan Kathryn had introduced him to years ago, in a posture that was completely typical for him. On the left of the picture stood the EMH, who had - a year ago - brought them the message of the Voyager being alive, with an ensign next to him. He'd heard that the ensign was his son's best friend. The first officer of the ship, that Maquis Captain, stood next to the Ensign - Kim? Yes, Harry Kim was his name - and had his hand on Ensign Kim's shoulder. The last two people in the picture were the half-Klingon Chief Engineer and his son. Tom stood behind her and they where embracing each other. They looked so happy, all of them, but especially his son. There was something about this photo. Suddenly he realized he realized that this wasn't just a photo of the crew. It was a family photo.
The Admiral sighed. This was his sons family - not him...not his wife...not Tom's sisters. He recalled that they didn't even have a family photo of their own. They had never taken one. There were some photos that had a bit of a family picture, but Owen never had been in one of them. He had never been there. Now he understood why his son still hadn't written to him. He was happy there and perhaps he didn't even want to be reminded of his life here on earth.
It was terrible and Owen felt guilty. He felt even worse when he recalled the letter he had written to Tom through that alien network. He had been a stubborn idiot. Not his son was to talk. He had to write to him and to apologize. Tom had every right never to forgive him, but Owen still hoped that he might. He took a PADD out of the drawer of his desk. But before he started to write, he went to take a picture-frame for that photo Kathryn had sent to him and put it on his desk. One day, he hoped another family-photo would sit next to that one, a photo of him, his daughters, his wife and...his son. But before that all could happen he had to remind his son that he still had a family in the Alpha Quadrant.
--End--
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