Chapter Text
The drive to Katie and Chakotay’s is beautiful in the sunlight of a summer afternoon. The trees cast long shadows across the road as Julius drives, and he remembers that first frantic trip here in the pitch-dark, more than a decade ago. Garak must see it, because he puts one hand on Julius’s shoulder and they drive like that, the radio faded to quiet static.
Katie and Chakotay are out in front of the house, waiting for them. Chakotay’s black hair is greying now, but his smile is the same. “You must have had terrible traffic,” he teases. “The others beat you by a few hours.”
Julius is extremely aware of what he and Garak were doing a few hours ago, the reason that they’re late, but he has enough practice to fight back the blush creeping up the back of his neck. “Julius was feeling inspired,” Garak says. “Couldn’t tear him away from the typewriter.”
Katie looks unimpressed. “I warn you, your ex-wife brought a copy of your last novel for us. There may be dramatic readings, especially after a few drinks.”
He blames Odette for Kay’s desire to read written work aloud. “I’ll remind her she only gets to read Janeway or Torres, not both.”
Garak lifts one of their suitcases out of the car, but Julius snatches the other before Garak can grab it and hands Garak the cane. “You never minded using it when you didn’t need it,” he says. Garak brandishes the cane like a rapier, lifting the suitcase like a shield. If Julius didn’t know him so well, he would miss the tiniest wince as Garak puts his full weight on his bad knee. “You’ve proved your point, dear.” Garak gives in and leans on the cane.
They follow Katie and Chakotay into the house, which is riotous with noise. The twins are wrestling, alternately shouting “Laurie!” and “Lizzie!” Tucker has crawled under the table, one hand on Elizabeth’s chubby ankle as he tries to separate her from her brother.
“Whenever I’m tempted to reproduce,” Reed says, “I have dinner at Tucker and Polly’s house. Amazing, how effective that is.”
“I believe the first step would be finding someone to reproduce with you.” Polly’s tone makes clear exactly how distasteful she finds the idea, but Julius thinks he sees the slightest hint of fondness in her eyes as she watches Tucker drag their toddlers out into the open.
Reed rolls his eyes. “Garak, Julius, the back bedroom is free. It’s next to the—shrieking creatures, but you were the last to arrive, so—”
“I think we’ll manage.” They don’t bother pretending, here, that Garak and Julius are anything other than—what they are to each other.
The twins have worn themselves—and their parents—out by the time they’ve all finished dinner. They make their way into the living room gradually, one after another, crowding onto couches and chairs and eventually a rug, all set in front of the television. Julius finds himself tucked tightly between Garak and Kay, watching Tucker fiddle with the television set while Elizabeth drools on his shoulder. He suspects that Tucker was up on the roof earlier today, doing something very illegal to make sure they could watch the television broadcast.
The television fuzzes for a moment and then Walter Cronkite’s face comes into focus. Julius knows what is going to happen, knows already from their contacts in NASA that the landing was successful, but it doesn’t stop the great swelling of emotion in him as the landing begins. There’s a moment—a long moment—when none of them breathes. Then Neil says, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The eagle has landed,” and there’s a collective gasp of relief.
The men in Houston must feel the same, because Mission Control responds, “Roger, Tranquility. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot.” Julius doesn’t look, but he’s fairly certain that someone in the room is crying. Garak gasps in a quick little breath as Neil begins to describe the surroundings, the chalky gray, the abundance of small craters. Then there’s the line, the magic line, “That’s one small step for a man—one giant leap for mankind,” and even having known ahead of time that it would be something like that, Julius finds that it hits him somewhere deep.
His eyes are burning as Neil keeps going, talking about the fine layers of moon-dust on his boots, the ease of walking around, as he says, “It has a stark beauty all its own,” and Julius isn’t quite crying but there’s adrenaline rushing through him and tears in his eyes. He feels Garak hitch a little next to him and grips Garak’s hand. “Magnificent sight out here,” Neil says, and Buzz agrees, “Magnificent desolation.” Garak’s hand clenches tightly on his own. The words wash over him, and he knows he’ll remember every one of them later, turn each one over in his mind.
But right now, his entire focus is on that single man as Neil reads the words aloud from the plaque, and everyone in the room is crying now, even if only silently. “Here, man from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.”