What you leave behind

Posted on 29 Sep 2026 @ 5:39pm by Captain Alexandria Somers

1,208 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: General Sim Postings
Location: Various
Timeline: Stardate 237412.24

WIP

[ON]

- Arlington Cemetery – 23:50 hours

It was Christmas Eve, and as a special trip, Alex, in her Marine uniform sporting Second Lieutenant bars and a new Rifle Regiment Crossbelt, arrived at the location where Annabelle was buried- well, her ashes were. She walked up to the headstone with a bunch of Snowdrop flowers in hand. She stood over the tombstone and looked down; the grave was still fresh to some extent. Now Alex crouched down and placed the Snowdrops in the jar which had water in, she began to cry and look at her hands, currently she could only see bloodied hands.

A ghostly form appeared beside her; the form looked solid, but it was all an illusion. Alex stopped crying when she sensed something by her side.

“So you still have not gotten over my death, then, Alex?” the familiar voice asked.

Startled, her eyes opened wide in surprise. Alex looked up at the luminous figure standing there, looking down and in one swift movement, Alex stood and turned to face the ghostly form of Annabel Graves.

“Annie, how, why now?” Alex could only ask, shocked “I want to give you a hug, but I know that is impossible,” Alex said.

Annabelle Graves did not look at Alex nor answer her questions directly “I thought you would grieve and move on, Alex. I did not expect you to still be weeping like a little girl; you need to come to terms with my passing. I am at peace with it,” Annabelle said, finally looking at Alex, and she smiled.

“Wow, a Second Lieutenant! Looks good on you. Where have you been stationed?” Annie asked.

A little confused at how the ghost of her dead friend was actually interacting with her now, Annabelle seemed to understand her confusion.

“Consider this a going-away Christmas gift, Alex. After tonight, you will not see me for some time; I intend to help you move on,” Graves said.

“I am part of the revived 95th Rifles. It seems my cousin Jasmine Somers put in a request to make the unit official again. I am one of the first officers to be assigned to the Regiment. I know the training will be intense; some are being taken from Starfleet Security and other departments, but mostly it is a fresh recruitment from the civilian populations of the Federation,” Alex said.

“Interesting, and about time Starfleet had a dedicated combat unit again. Starfleet security can only do so much, and with the Dominion War heating up, Starfleet will be needing all the troops it can muster,” Graves responded.

“How did you know about the Dominion War?” Alex asked, surprised that a ghost would know.

Graves looked at her with an amused smile “Oh, Alex, I may be dead, but I do see what has happened, and I do keep track of things. I am simply powerless to do anything about it; it is not called the afterlife for nothing, you know!” Graves said in grim humour as she looked at her headstone.

“How were mom and dad at the funeral?” Annabel asked, curiosity in her tone.

Alex looked at her in disbelief “Really, you keep up to date with things in the mortal world but not the day of your funeral?” Alex asked.

“I am a spirit, Alex, not a soothsayer; besides, I was not allowed to be back so soon,” Annie said, smiling at her own joke and the flash of annoyance that crossed her friend's face.

“Back at the funeral, you had a twelve-gun salute, and I had to hand your sword and hat over to your father after they gave your mother the Federation flag; it was all I could do not to cry,” Alex said, moving on.

Annie looked around the cemetery “Never did I think that I would end up in this place,” she said, indicating Arlington.

“Well, Major Donohue pulled some strings for you to be laid to rest here. I picked the quote on your headstone; what do you think of it?” Alex asked.

The spectral form of Annabelle Graves moved closer, read it, felt moved, and she turned to face Alex again. “I think it is very lovely and so kind of you, but you have a question you need to ask, so ask it," she said.

Alex looked puzzled for a moment, then realised what it was. She looked up, eyes full of tears “When I held you in my arms that fateful day, you said you loved me! In what way, and did you mean it?” she asked.

Annie gave a small smile “Ah, that is the question, and the answer is yes, I do, and it was in the way of being romantically involved. You were the only woman I wanted from the day I met you, but I knew you did not feel the same, so I kept it to myself. And yes, I did mean it, but I also liked men too, but where women were concerned, it was only you,” she answered.

Alex, a little shocked, was silent a moment “I never knew. You hid your feelings well, but in all honesty, what our relationship would have evolved to might have been something like that. I had strange feelings, ones which I could not identify, but on that day, in that moment, I loved you too, Annie,” Alex said, feeling a lot lighter emotionally.

“That is my gift to you, Alex: closure on your conscience and knowing you had love in your heart at the moment I died. You have admitted this, and you must be feeling lighter emotionally?” Annie asked, “The Snowdrop flowers are beautiful too; they were my favourites, thank you,” she added.

“Yes, I am, Annie. Thank you for the gift. I had been holding that back so long that I had almost forgotten about it, but I promise you there will be no other woman like you, besides I am dating a male Fleet Lieutenant now,” Alex said.

Annabelle looked at her and gave her a knowing smile, and then looked around once again. Then, as she looked up a moment, then straight at Alex, “I have to be going now, Alex. Remember me once a year; that is all I ask, and have a wonderful Christmas and New Year,” Annabelle said.

Alex returned to her kneeling position in front of the grave as the spectral form of Annabelle Graves faded out, and as the wind picked up, Alex heard Annie say something.

“Nothing is forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten; remember,” the fading voice said.

Alex’s retro wristwatch alarm sounded at midnight. She looked at it as the seconds counter reached zero, and the alarm stopped, and the clock face showed 00:01. She stood up and looked up at the sky “Merry Christmas, Annie. I will speak to you next year, I hope” she said as she left the grave.

As she walked away, the quote on Annie's headstone came into view; it said, “Hope! In the end hope is all there is for the future”

Wiping her eyes, Alex headed to the nearest transporter to head home again

[OFF]

2nd Lieutenant Alexandria Somers
SFMC – 95th Rifles
Sol Sector – Earth

Corporal Annabelle Graves (Deceased)
Former SFMC

 

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