Unexpected Meeting with the Past

[Annabelle O'Halloran 0]

*Note: Megan Doyle is played by Samantha Kent. Thanks, Sam.

 

The last thing Anna had expected when she'd walked into the rustic bar and grill on Ha'Vorante was that she would encounter someone who knew her family, someone who'd been part of her clan, and Anna was just realizing with growing discomfort--someone who should have become her sister by bonding. Megan Doyle had been her oldest brother Sean's promised. It had been so long--the schism in the clan had occurred before her tenth birthday and Sean had been with Eleanor for years. She didn't know what to say. Megan was apparently in the area looking to expand her family's interests in the Gamma Quadrant and Anna realized she would have no idea Anna was in Starfleet. The crew hadn't worn their uniforms down to the surface. "Megan, I'm sorry I didn't recognize you at first, but you surprised me and I'm sorry if I seemed rude. It's been a very long time."

 

Megan Doyle paused, her fork digging into a bit of the Vorta restaurant's best local delicacy; the fact that it looked like road kill didn't prevent it from being nourishing enough. She looked a little amused at Anna's apology and shrugged with a shake of her head. "No offense taken, Anna," she said with a calm smile, falling immediately into the younger woman's nickname as she remembered it from the days back on Kilo Station. "It has been a long time at that...last I saw of you, you were running about at waist level. Grown up pretty neat and tidy, haven't you?" Her easy manner partially masked the intensity with which her green eyes were focused on Anna's face. One accumulated a lot of news in the amount of time it had been since her family had broken off from the Whelan clan's...business conglomerate, and all of it was of marked interest to the trader. "So what brings you so far out from Kilo?"

 

If she told Megan about Starfleet immediately, she would gain no information that she could send back to Kilo. And that would be all right, Anna thought to herself, realizing that she'd been thinking of using this chance meeting with Megan as an opportunity for leveraging communication with her three older brothers and father, all four of whom had been very vocally disapproving when she'd informed them that she would be entering Starfleet. She'd been back to Kilo several times since, of course, but the coldness was always there. They took no pride in her accomplishments-quite the reverse-it was a source of shame for them. It annoyed her that she would even think of trying to court their approval by reporting on what a rival group of smugglers might be up to. She met Megan's intense gaze with a level one of her own, choosing brevity as she answered, "A Federation starship."

 

Megan blinked. "Federation?" For a moment she debated several different interpretations of this statement. It could mean that Whelan's legitimate arm had taken up military contracts -- which seemed exceedingly unlikely -- or that they had found an astonishingly useful contact and opened up a gunrunning line or some other such more profitable enterprise -- less unlikely but rather improbably difficult -- or that Anna had made a massive career change and left Whelan just as thoroughly as Megan had. As this seemed the most likely, she couldn't restrain a low laugh, raising her eyebrows at Anna. "I bet ol' Edmond just loved you for that."

 

"Aye, he did. Sean, Daniel and Brian gave me holy hell as well," Anna responded, her tone not without bitterness but her eyes gleaming with amusement. Megan was one of the only people outside of Kilo who would understand what choosing Starfleet over the family business would mean to Anna, and having known Edmond O'Halloran and his three oldest sons, would realize how much pressure would have been brought to bear on the only female O'Halloran to fulfill her family duty and bond well.

 

Megan's tight expression didn't shift but the intense look in her eyes did slightly, shifting to encompass a certain amount of frustration -- she had hoped when she had spotted Anna that she might have had an opportunity to get hard information on Whelan's activities over the last fourteen years, something which was in short supply given the clan's strict control over their organization. But if Anna had abandoned the family as well, she probably wasn't given very much in terms of insider information anymore. Megan set her legs as if to pull back from the table -- no need to waste any more time -- and gave a quick nod, a dry smile. "Aye...they didn't think much of our leaving either. Never saw Sean look quite that angry." She looked as if she wanted to say something further, but seemed to think better of it and stabbed instead at the road kill meal, forking a bit into her mouth.

 

When Megan and the rest of the schism group had left Kilo, Anna hadn't yet reached ten years of age. Sean had bonded with Eleanor a couple of years later and Anna had never given a thought to what had happened between her oldest brother and Megan before she left. She looked at it now with adult eyes and perspective as she watched Megan eat the revolting looking lunch special. "Sean knew you were leaving, then?"

 

Megan shrugged. "Asked him to come with," she said casually, as if it didn't matter. "Didn't take much talking to realize he wasn't too keen on that idea." She looked at Anna and smiled a slow grin. "I'd imagine you have a pretty good idea of the kind of loyalty Whelan inspires, especially with those who get to make the rules rather than follow them."

 

"Clan Whelan has only survived because of the rules laid down in the beginning and strict adherence to them," Anna replied automatically, her mind on something else, her interest and imagination captured by Megan's words. She leaned forward, her elbows on the table, but not worried since her gran wasn't around to take her to task for her lack of etiquette. "Sean would never leave--he's being groomed to be the next Chief, and you had to know that."

 

Megan's grin twitched downward at the corners, and then back up. "It was an experiment in hope which didn't last very long," she said dryly. "And in burning my bridges...after that even if I'd wanted to stay, your lot wouldn'ta taken me back. Sean doesn't forget things all that easily, and he got it from your father. So we went off to do our own thing -- and I have to say it hasn't worked out too badly for us; been well outta the red for years now, and a lot more freedom into the bargain," she added, straightening slightly, though the sentence had its own rote quality to it as well. She wondered what Anna had seen in Starfleet that had drawn her out of the trading business entirely; that clean a break was something that rarely even crossed anyone's mind in the circles she ran in.

 

"No, Sean never forgets and he does not forgive...easily." She knew that too well from how he'd responded to her 'betrayal' of the family, but that's not what was so interesting about Megan's story. Anna looked up and smiled, holding Megan's sharper, cooler gaze with her own. "He knew what you were planning and yet you still managed to leave with two freighters. He could have stopped you, let the rest of them know what your group was planning...but he didn't." Anna picked up her glass of berry juice and lifted it to take a sip but paused and looked at Megan over the rim of the glass. "He let you go when you said you wouldn't stay. He didn't betray your trust."

 

Megan grunted. "Your brother is a good man," she said, quickly swallowing the last few bits of her meal and finally engaging her legs to push her chair back from the table. She didn't look away from Anna's gaze, though she seemed rather to be regretting having started the conversation in the first place. "I notice you managed to get out with all parts in working order yourself. Must be a soft spot in there somewhere. Whelan may be in trouble; I doubt they can afford that kind of inattention." Her tone grew a little sardonic, though she grinned again.

 

"Until you told me that he knew and your group still left unscathed and with two ships, I'd have bet that Sean was granite clear through and I'll be honest, I still think so." Anna leaned back, Megan was clearly on the verge of leaving and she'd no reason to hold her. She didn't even know that she wanted to try and prolong the conversation but she was grateful for having had one. She welcomed the insight into her brother. "It was a pleasure to see you again, Megan." She raised her glass a final time and smiled, saying the traditional Clan goodbye, "Go raibh tú daibhir i mí-áidh, agus saibhir i mbeannachtaí." May you be poor in misfortune-rich in blessings.

 

Megan blinked, as if remembering something she hadn't thought of for a while, then laughed. "To Whelan, generally my proscribed response is Imeacht gan teacht ort, but as neither of us seems much inclined for clan warfare at the moment...Gurab amhlaidh duit. Sláinte!" Standing up quickly she pushed her chair back in and inclined her head in departure. "Give Sean my regards, should you ever happen to see him in better temper than you left him." And she disappeared back into the crowds.

 

Anna started laughing, Imeacht gan teacht ort meant 'May you leave without returning' and was very appropriate for unwanted visitors. She was pleased that Megan had instead gone with 'The same to you. To your health!.' She watched, rather bemused as the older woman darted away, lost from view almost immediately, the final remark about Sean still hanging in the air. She was pretty sure that Megan had not enjoyed having old memories stirred up, and Anna couldn't rightly say she blamed her. She herself had left Colum and her bond promise behind willingly, nay eagerly. Megan's situation had been altogether different. Anna hoped she'd found what she'd gone looking for all those years ago.

Edited March 29, 2009 by Annabelle O'Halloran