Chapter Text
"Mum, could you tell Phoebe to leave me alone?" Kathryn was sitting on the living room couch with Three in her arms. The little girl, now five years old, loved to be pampered. She made sure to remind everyone that she was the baby of the house. Three had other names just like her older sisters Lauren and Shannon. She, however, preferred Three to Astrid Kelly. Seven had given her the name Kelly due to Kathryn`s Irish heritage and it suited the little girl`s character. Astrid, on the other hand, was given to her by Kathryn due to Seven`s Nordic background.
Phoebe was trying to plait her older sister`s unruly hair and Kathryn had had enough or her efforts. Her hair has always been the source of frustration when she was growing up. Three was laughing at her Mommy for being frustrated and Gretchen smiled at the usual arguments her daughters and now granddaughters were having.
"Mommy, it is illogical to be fru..ctased at something you cannot change." Three said with a lisp.
"Oh, yeah?" How about i do this." Janeway ruffled her strawberry blonde hair causing the girl to growl playfully. "Oh, and it`s F-R-U-S-T-R-A-T-E-D. Frustrated." Janeway spelled the word. "Now say it with me, FRUSTRATED." Kathryn and Three said in unison. The girl had a sharp, laser-like mind, very much like her Borg mother, Seven of Nine. She even spoke with her Momma`s inflections and had her mannerisms.
Seven of Nine watched all the drama around her with amusement. Lauren was outside riding her red bike. She seemed to like the outdoors life very much like her admiral mother. Seven stood up and looked out of the window in time to see her daughter fall of the bike. She was about to go to her but Gretchen stopped her.
"No, Annika. Let her do what she should. We all know how proud she is." Gretchen smiled at Seven and looked at Kathryn. Lauren had her admiral mother`s spirit. She rarely cried stating that crying was for `babies.` Seven and Kathryn had tried to encourage her to express herself in other ways such as painting with her Aunty Phoebe. Phoebe had declared her a master. The little girl, at five years old, was able to simply look at a painting and draw a picture on canvas using the 21st century wet-on-wet method with oil paints. However, because of her eidetic memory, she once saw her Momma naked in the bathroom. She decided to paint everything she saw. She then innocently went to the living room to present her Mommy with the painting so Janeway could give it to Seven. Suffice it to say that her parents were shocked but they had to be careful of their reactions because they did not want to discourage her from clearly what seemed to be a talent for painting. Lauren made sure she reminded everyone that she was the first born and whatever she says `goes.` Kathryn and Seven with the Doctor`s help were still working on the young girl`s behaviour.
Shannon Jasmine seemed to be the `reasonable` one. She usually encouraged her two sisters to play nicely together when things got out of hand. She liked to sit in her room and work on mathematics and physics equations. Recently she sneaked into the kitchen when her family was in the holo suite, which their parents had built for the children. She took her Momma Seven`s blender, unscrewed it and got the motor out of it. She replaced everything back minus the motor. When her Momma wanted to use it that evening, it did not work and Seven had blamed Kathryn of sabotaging it because Janeway had once said the blender sounded like a warp core breach. The little girl owned up when she saw her Mommy being told off by her Momma. She did not like to see her parents argue.
Once she walked in on them in a heated embrace in their bedroom. The parents had assumed that the children were asleep for it was past their bedtime. The little girl simply wanted her Momma to tell her another story because she had trouble sleeping. She found her parents in a compromised position and undressed.
"Please, Momma, don`t hurt Mommy?" Shannon pleaded.
Seven quickly pulled the covers over her wife and herself and brought the girl closer so that she was standing at the head of the bed. Kathryn disappeared under the covers to let her wife deal with the situation.
"Listen, baby, I am not hurting your Mommy. I love her very much and she loves me too. One day you will understand. Now go back to your room and we will come to read you another story ." That convinced the little girl and she left her parents bedroom.
"It`s hard to deal with gifted children." Kathryn sighed and leaned against Seven`s shoulder. She kissed the shoulder and ran her tongue on it. Seven wore a sleeveless button down blouse. They both sat at the big, fallen tree near the pond while the children played and fed the ducks. Kathryn then turned her wife`s head sideways so that Seven was facing her and she kissed the younger woman soundly. Her wife reciprocated hungrily.
"Eww, gross Mommy. Why are you doing that to Momma?" Kathryn looked at Seven. Seven looked back at Kathryn. For the first time in a long time the women had no ready answer for the sub unit called Three. Finally Seven said.
"Love. An expression of gratitude for one parent to another. I love your Mommy and she loves me. We have to remind each other of our affection for each other."
"Can i kiss you, Mommy?" Shannon Jasmine asked. "Of course you can, Honey. Come here." Kathryn said and hugged the little girl and kissed her on the cheek and forehead. She did the same for Lauren even though she protested that kissing was for `sissies." She repeated the action with Three and the kids ran off to continue playing.
"I think we should call it a day, eh, Annika?" Time to go cook dinner for our sub units. Let`s call them back to the Unimatrix." They smiled at each other and walked towards home hand in hand.